How to determine Tchebysheff polynomial general expression

Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
1 reply · 2K views
EmilyRuck
Messages
134
Reaction score
6
Hello!
Tchebysheff polynomials are often defined with trigonometric functions:

[itex]T_m (x) = <br /> \begin{cases} \cos(m \arccos (x)) & -1 \le x \le 1\\<br /> \mathrm{cosh} (m \mathrm{arccosh} (x)) & x > 1\\(-1)^m \mathrm{cosh} (m \mathrm{arccosh} |x|) & x < 1<br /> \end{cases}[/itex]

But they are also polynomials, and for m even their definition could be

[itex] T_m (x) = \sum_{n = 0}^{m/2} (-1)^{m/2 - n} \frac{m/2}{m/2 + n} \binom{m/2 + n}{2n}(2x)^{2n}[/itex]

How could one derive the first expression from the latter? That is, how could we pass from a polynomial with powers of x to a [itex]\cos (m \arccos (x))[/itex] function?
I searched several times in the web for this demonstration, but I never found it. If you can suggest a link or a book instead of the demonstration itself I thank you so much anyway!
Bye :)

Emily
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
cos(my) can be written as a polynomial in cos(y) of degree m. If y = arccos(x), then cos(my) is a polynomial in cos(arccos(x)) = x.

As a simple example the double angle formula, cos(2y) = cos2(y) - sin2(y) = 2cos2(y) - 1.

Triple angle, quartic angle etc. formulas exist as well. I think the easiest way is to use Euler's formula:

[tex]cos(my) + i sin(my) = e^{imy} = \left(e^{iy}\right)^n = \left( cos(y) + i sin(y) \right)^{m}[/tex]
Expanding the right hand side gives cos(my) and sin(my) as polynomials in cos(y) and sin(y) (from which you can write it in terms of only cosine or sine)
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: 1 person