

Hermite Polynomial
The Hermite polynomials are set oforthogonal polynomials over the domain
withweighting function
, illustrated above for
, 2, 3, and 4. Hermite polynomials are implemented in theWolfram Language asHermiteH[n,x].
The Hermite polynomial can be defined by thecontour integral
(1) |
where the contour encloses the origin and is traversed in a counterclockwise direction (Arfken 1985, p. 416).
The first few Hermite polynomials are
(2) | |||
(3) | |||
(4) | |||
(5) | |||
(6) | |||
(7) | |||
(8) | |||
(9) | |||
(10) | |||
(11) | |||
(12) |
When ordered from smallest to largest powers, the triangle of nonzero coefficientsis 1; 2; -2, 4; -12, 8; 12, -48, 16; 120, -160, 32; ... (OEISA059343).
The values may be calledHermite numbers.
The Hermite polynomials are aSheffer sequencewith
(13) | |||
(14) |
(Roman 1984, p. 30), giving theexponentialgenerating function
(15) |
Using aTaylor series shows that
(16) | |||
(17) |
Since,
(18) | |||
(19) |
Now define operators
(20) | |||
(21) |
It follows that
(22) | |||
(23) | |||
(24) | |||
(25) | |||
(26) |
so
(27) |
and
(28) |
(Arfken 1985, p. 720), which means the following definitions are equivalent:
(29) | |||
(30) | |||
(31) |
(Arfken 1985, pp. 712-713 and 720).
The Hermite polynomials may be written as
(32) | |||
(33) |
(Koekoek and Swarttouw 1998), where is aconfluent hypergeometric function of the second kind, which can be simplified to
(34) |
in the right half-plane.
The Hermite polynomials are related to the derivative oferfby
(35) |
They have acontour integral representation
(36) |
They are orthogonal in the range with respect to theweighting function
(37) |
The Hermite polynomials satisfy the symmetry condition
(38) |
They also obey therecurrence relations
(39) |
(40) |
By solving theHermite differential equation,the series
(41) | |||
(42) | |||
(43) | |||
(44) |
are obtained, where the products in the numerators are equal to
(45) |
with thePochhammer symbol.
Let a set of associated functions be defined by
(46) |
then the satisfy the orthogonality conditions
(47) | |||
(48) | |||
(49) | |||
(50) | |||
(51) |
if iseven and
,
, and
. Otherwise, the last integral is 0 (Szegö 1975, p. 390). Another integral is
(52) |
where and
is abinomial coefficient (T. Drane, pers. comm., Feb. 14, 2006).
Thepolynomial discriminant is
(53) |
(Szegö 1975, p. 143), a normalized form of thehyperfactorial, the first few values of which are 1, 32, 55296, 7247757312, 92771293593600000, ... (OEISA054374). The table ofresultants is given by,
,
,
, ... (OEISA054373).
Two interesting identities involving are given by
(54) |
and
(55) |
(G. Colomer, pers. comm.). A very pretty identity is
(56) |
where (T. Drane, pers. comm., Feb. 14, 2006).
They also obey the sum
(57) |
as well as the more complicated
(58) |
where is aHermite number,
is aStirling number of the second kind, and
is aPochhammer symbol (T. Drane, pers. comm., Feb. 14, 2006).
A class of generalized Hermite polynomials satisfying
(59) |
was studied by Subramanyan (1990). A class of relatedpolynomialsdefined by
(60) |
and withgenerating function
(61) |
was studied by Djordjević (1996). They satisfy
(62) |
Roman (1984, pp. 87-93) defines a generalized Hermite polynomial with variance
.
A modified version of the Hermite polynomial is sometimes (but rarely) defined by
(63) |
(Jörgensen 1916; Magnus and Oberhettinger 1948; Slater 1960, p. 99; Abramowitz and Stegun 1972, p. 778). The first few of these polynomials are given by
(64) | |||
(65) | |||
(66) | |||
(67) | |||
(68) |
When ordered from smallest to largest powers, the triangle of nonzero coefficients is 1; 1;, 1;
, 1; 3,
, 1; 15,
, 1; ... (OEISA096713). The polynomial
is theindependence polynomial of thecomplete graph
.
See also
Hermite Number,Mehler's Hermite Polynomial Formula,Multivariate Hermite Polynomial,Weber FunctionsRelated Wolfram sites
http://functions.wolfram.com/Polynomials/HermiteH/,http://functions.wolfram.com/HypergeometricFunctions/HermiteHGeneral/Explore with Wolfram|Alpha

References
Abramowitz, M. and Stegun, I. A. (Eds.). "Orthogonal Polynomials." Ch. 22 inHandbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables, 9th printing. New York: Dover, pp. 771-802, 1972.Andrews, G. E.; Askey, R.; and Roy, R. "Hermite Polynomials." §6.1 inSpecial Functions. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 278-282, 1999.Arfken, G. "Hermite Functions." §13.1 inMathematical Methods for Physicists, 3rd ed. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, pp. 712-721, 1985.Chebyshev, P. L. "Sur le développement des fonctions à une seule variable."Bull. ph.-math., Acad. Imp. Sc. St. Pétersbourg1, 193-200, 1859.Chebyshev, P. L.Oeuvres, Vol. 1. New York: Chelsea, pp. 49-508, 1987.Djordjević, G. "On Some Properties of Generalized Hermite Polynomials."Fib. Quart.34, 2-6, 1996.Hermite, C. "Sur un nouveau développement en série de fonctions."Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. Paris58, 93-100 and 266-273, 1864. Reprinted in Hermite, C.Oeuvres complètes, tome 2. Paris, pp. 293-308, 1908.Hermite, C.Oeuvres complètes, tome 3. Paris: Hermann, p. 432, 1912.Iyanaga, S. and Kawada, Y. (Eds.). "Hermite Polynomials." Appendix A, Table 20.IV inEncyclopedic Dictionary of Mathematics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 1479-1480, 1980.Jeffreys, H. and Jeffreys, B. S. "The Parabolic Cylinder, Hermite, and Hh Functions" §23.08 inMethods of Mathematical Physics, 3rd ed. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 620-622, 1988.Jörgensen, N. R.Undersögler over frekvensflader og korrelation. Copenhagen, Denmark: Busck, 1916.Koekoek, R. and Swarttouw, R. F. "Hermite." §1.13 inThe Askey-Scheme of Hypergeometric Orthogonal Polynomials and itsReferenced on Wolfram|Alpha
Hermite PolynomialCite this as:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Hermite Polynomial."FromMathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource.https://mathworld.wolfram.com/HermitePolynomial.html