Abstract
Exceptional orthogonal X-polynomials of symmetric and nonsymmetric types can be considered as eigenfunctions of a Sturm–Liouville problem. In this paper, by defining a generic second-order differential equation, a unified classification of all these polynomials is presented, and 10 particular cases of it are then introduced and analyzed.
Keywords:
Sturm–Liouville problems; exceptional orthogonal X1-polynomials; Pearson distributions family; generalized Jacobi, Laguerre and Hermite differential equations MSC:
34B24; 34L10; 33C45; 33C47
1. Introduction
Classical orthogonal polynomials can be considered eigenfunctions of a Sturm–Liouville problem [1,2,3] of the form
on an open interval, say , with the boundary conditions
in which and are given constants and the functions and in (1) are assumed to be continuous for . The boundary value problem (1) and (2) is called singular [4] if one of the points a and b is singular, i.e., or . Sturm–Liouville problems appear in various branches of physics, engineering and biology and are usually studied in three different continuous, discrete and q-discrete spaces; see, for example, [5].
Let and be two solutions of Equation (1). Following the Sturm–Liouville theory [4,6], they are orthogonal with respect to the positive weight function on under the given conditions (2), i.e.,
where
Many special functions in theoretical and mathematical physics are solutions of a regular or singular Sturm–Liouville problem, satisfying the orthogonality condition (3) [4,7].
There are totally six sequences of real polynomials [5] that are orthogonal with respect to the Pearson distributions family
Three of them (i.e., Jacobi, Laguerre and Hermite polynomials [3]) are infinitely orthogonal with respect to three special cases of the positive function (4) (i.e., beta, gamma and normal distributions [8]) and three other ones are finitely orthogonal limited to some parametric constraints with respect to F-Fisher, inverse gamma and generalized T-student distributions [8]. Table 1 shows the main properties of these six sequences.
Table 1.
Characteristics of six sequences of classical orthogonal polynomials.
It was shown by S. Bochner [7,9] that if an infinite sequence of polynomials satisfies a second-order eigenvalue equation of the form
then , and must be polynomials of degree and 0, respectively. Moreover, if the sequence is an orthogonal set, then it has to be one of the classical Jacobi, Laguerre or Hermite polynomials, which satisfy a second order differential equation of the form [9,10,11]
where
and
is the eigenvalue depending on . However, there are three other sequences of hypergeometric polynomials that are solutions of Equation (5) but finitely orthogonal [12].
It is the presumption in the theory of special functions that any orthogonal polynomial system starts with a polynomial of degree 0. Nevertheless, from the Sturm–Liouville theory point of view, such a restriction is not necessary, and that point gives birth to the so-called ‘exceptional orthogonal polynomials’. In this sense, two families of exceptional orthogonal polynomials were recently introduced in [13,14] as solutions of a second-order eigenvalue equation of the form
for , where
and , are real constants. It was also shown in [13] that if a self-adjoint second-order operator has a polynomial eigenfunctions of type , then it can be X-Jacobi polynomials with the weight function
where , and/or X-Laguerre polynomials with the weight function
Exceptional orthogonal polynomials were recently of interest due to their important applications in exactly solvable potentials and supersymmetry, Dirac operators minimally coupled to external fields and entropy measures in quantum information theory [15,16].
This paper is organized as follows. In the next section, we consider six sequences of orthogonal X-polynomials as particular solutions of a generic differential equation in the form
where r is a real parameter such that and the roots of are supposed to be real, see Section 3 for more details. Both infinite and finite types of nonsymmetric exceptional orthogonal X-polynomials can be extracted from Equation (8). Although some infinite polynomial sequences were investigated in [17] for particular values of r, the finite cases of nonsymmetric exceptional X-polynomials orthogonal on infinite intervals are introduced in this paper for the first time. A key point in this sense is that the weight functions corresponding to these six sequences are exactly a multiplication of the Pearson distributions family introduced in Table 1. Hence, in Section 2, we first have a review on six classical orthogonal polynomials in order to present a unified classification for nonsymmetric exceptional orthogonal X-polynomials in Section 3. In Section 4, we study a series of solutions of the generic Equation (8) in order to find some of its polynomial-type solutions. In Section 5, six extended differential equations, as particular cases of the main Equation (8), are introduced, and it is shown that their polynomial solutions are X-orthogonal. Finally in Section 6, we apply the generic Equation (8) once again to establish a symmetric Sturm–Liouville equation of the form
and then to introduce four main classes of symmetric orthogonal X-polynomials.
2. Classical Orthogonal Polynomials: A Brief Review
It is shown in [5] that the monic polynomial solution of Equation (5) can be represented as
where
and
denotes the Gauss hypergeometric function for .
The general Formula (9) is a suitable tool to compute the coefficients of for any fixed degree k and arbitrary a, so that after simplifying it, we obtain
Moreover, by referring to the Nikiforov and Uvarov approach [6] and considering Equation (5) as a self-adjoint form, the Rodrigues representation of the monic polynomials is derived as
where
Using the Formula (9) or (10), we can also obtain a generic three term recurrence equation as [5]
in which denotes the monic polynomials of (9) with the initial values
Finally, the norm square value of the monic polynomials (9) can be calculated as follows: Let be a predetermined orthogonality interval which consists of the zeros of or . By noting the Rodrigues representation (10), we have
Hence, integrating by parts from the right hand side of (11) eventually yields
Although the Jacobi polynomials
Laguerre polynomials
and Hermite polynomials
are three polynomial solutions of Equation (5), there are three other sequences of hypergeometric polynomials that are finitely orthogonal with respect to the generalized T, inverse Gamma and F distributions [12] and are solutions of Equation (5). The first finite sequence, i.e.,
satisfies the differential equation
and is finitely orthogonal with respect to the weight function
on if and only if [12]
The second finite sequence, i.e.,
satisfies the differential equation
and is finitely orthogonal with respect to the weight function [12]
on for . The third finite sequence, which is finitely orthogonal with respect to the generalized T-student distribution weight function
is defined on as
satisfying the equation
and the orthogonality property holds if
3. A Unified Classification of Nonsymmetric Exceptional Orthogonal X-Polynomials
We choose in (12) so that the relative eigenfunction is a polynomial of degree n. Hence, we first consider a subspace of the whole space of polynomials of degree at most n as
in which is a real constant. By substituting and for into (12), we respectively obtain
and
Corollary 1.
If we take for and
then
(i) and lead to .
(ii) and lead to .
Also note that for , we respectively have and .
We can now show that the polynomial solutions of Equation (12) in are orthogonal on an interval, say , with respect to a weight function in the form
where satisfies the equation
To prove the orthogonality, we first consider the self-adjoint form of Equation (12) as
and for the index m as
Multiplying by and in relations (16) and (17) respectively, subtracting them and then integrating from both sides yields
Now if the following conditions
hold, the left hand side of (18) is equal to zero and therefore
which approves the orthogonality of polynomial sequence with respect to the weight function .
On the other hand, the explicit solution of Equation (15) is as
The key point in this relation is that is exactly a multiplication of the Pearson distribution given in (4), because if the integrand function of (19) is written as a sum of two fractions with linear and quadratic denominators in the form
then we obtain
and accordingly,
Corollary 2.
The polynomial solutions of the generic equation
where and are nonsymmetric exceptional X-polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function (20).
Now let us assume that the polynomial solution of Equation (21) is symbolically indicated as
By referring to the Pearson distributions family (4), an inverse process can also be considered as follows.
Suppose that a simplified case of the weight function (20) is given as
in which . Then, by noting Equation (21), the unknown polynomials and of degree 2 in the differential equation
can be directly derived by computing the logarithmic derivative of the function
as
and then equating the result with
so that we finally obtain
and
provided that the roots of are real. Relations (25) and (26) show that the polynomial solution of Equation (24) with can be written in terms of the symbol (22) as
Additionally, according to the Corollary 1, in (24) directly depends on the roots of in (26) and is therefore computed as
As we observed, was indeed the product of for
and a special case of the Pearson distributions family. This means that we can classify the nonsymmetric exceptional orthogonal X-polynomials into six main sequences.
Corollary 3.
By referring to Table 1 and relation (23), there are, in total, six sequences of nonsymmetric orthogonal X-polynomials as follows:
- 1.
- Infinite X-Jacobi polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function
- 2.
- Infinite X-Laguerre polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function
- 3.
- Infinite X-Hermite polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function
- 4.
- Finite X-polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function
- 5.
- Finite X-polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function
- 6.
- Finite X-polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function
In all six above-mentioned cases, and θ is a real parameter such that .
4. On the Series Solutions of Equation (12)
Let us reconsider Equation (12) in the form
The indicial equation corresponding to (27) is
Hence, using the Frobenius method, we can obtain the series solutions of Equation (12) when
for different values of .
If , three cases can occur for the basis solutions:
- (i)
- If , then
- (ii)
- If then,
- (iii)
- Finally, if , then
In either case, there is at least one series solution, that it may assume the form
Note that, in a similar way, for and , or the assumption
eventually leads to the same as recurrence relation (29) for .
Some Polynomial Solutions of Equation (21)
According to Corollary 1, the coefficients of the polynomial in (21) have a significant role in determining the value in the system (14). In this section, we investigate six special cases of based on its roots and the real value r, leading to particular cases of Equation (21). First, suppose that and r is a root of . So and relations (14) reduce to
The equation in (30) gives three different cases as follows:
- Case 1. and
- Case 2. and
- Case 3. and leading to which means that r is a multiple root of .
Second, suppose that and . So, relations (14) reduce to
Now, if r is a root of , we have leading to
- Case 4. and , which is indeed a particular case of the first Case 1 for .
Otherwise, we obtain
- Case 5. and .
Finally, suppose that . In this case, relations (14) reduce to
which yield leading to . Therefore, the last case can be considered
- Case 6. and is arbitrary.
Now we consider each of these six cases:
For Case 1. Under the conditions stated in Case 1, the differential Equation (21) reads with , as
for , whose solutions belong to the space
By comparing Equation (35) and Equation (5) and referring to the polynomial solution (9) and also relation (33), we can finally conclude that the polynomial solution of Equation (31) for is as
In other words, we have
5. On the Differential Equations of Six Nonsymmetric Exceptional Orthogonal X-Polynomials
Noting the Corollary 3, in this section, we consider six special cases of the main Equation (21) and study their orthogonal polynomial solutions. For finite cases, we also determine some necessary conditions in order to satisfy the orthogonality relations.
5.1. On the Differential Equation of Exceptional X-Jacobi Polynomials
As a generalization of the Jacobi differential equation for , consider the following equation
where are real parameters such that , and
According to Section 3, the polynomial solution of Equation (37), i.e.,
is orthogonal with respect to the weight function
on . Additionally, for , or in (37), and the weight function will be a special case of the beta distribution. In fact, in each of these circumstances, Equation (37) is simplified as
for and
for and
for with the following Jacobi-type polynomial solutions
5.2. On the Differential Equation of Exceptional X-Laguerre Polynomials
As a generalization of Laguerre differential equation for , consider the following equation
where are real parameters such that , and
According to the Section 3, the polynomial solution of Equation (38), i.e.,
is orthogonal with respect to the weight function
on . Also, for or in (38), and the weight function will be a special case of Gamma distribution. In fact, in each of these circumstances Equation (38) is simplified as
for and
for with the following Laguerre-type polynomial solutions
and
5.3. On the Differential Equation of Exceptional X-Hermite Polynomials
5.4. The First Finite Sequence of Exceptional Orthogonal X-Polynomials
Consider the differential equation
where are real parameters, and
Here we show that the polynomial solution of Equation (40), i.e.,
is finitely orthogonal with respect to the weight function
on if and only if
In other words, if the self-adjoint form of Equation (40) is written as
and for the index m as
then multiplying (41) and (42) by and , respectively and subtracting them and finally integrating the resulting equation on the interval gives
Note that for , or , reduces to a special case of the F-Fisher distribution. Indeed, in each of these circumstances, and Equation (40) reads as
for and
for and
for with the following polynomial solutions
and
5.5. The Second Finite Sequence of Exceptional Orthogonal X-Polynomials
Consider the equation
where are real parameters, and
It can be shown that the polynomial solution of Equation (44), i.e.
is finitely orthogonal with respect to the weight function
on if and only if
because if the self-adjoint form of Equation (44) is written as
and for the index m as
then multiplying (45) and (46) by and , respectively and subtracting them and finally integrating the resulting equation over gives
Note that for or , reduces to a special case of inverse Gamma distribution and in each of these circumstances so that Equation (44) changes to
for and
for with the following polynomial solutions
and
5.6. The Third Finite Sequence of Exceptional Orthogonal X-Polynomials
Consider the differential equation
where are real parameters, and
The polynomial solution of Equation (48), i.e.,
is finitely orthogonal with respect to the weight function
on if and only if
because if the self-adjoint form of Equation (48) is written as
and for the index m as
then multiplying (49) and (50) by and , respectively and subtracting them and finally integrating from both sides on gives
For , reduces to the generalized T-Student distribution and Equation (48) reads as
with the polynomial solution
6. A Unified Classification for Symmetric Exceptional Orthogonal X-Polynomials
Fortunately, most of special functions in theoretical and mathematical physics which are the solutions of Sturm–Liouville problems have the symmetry property, namely
These functions have usually interesting applications in physics and engineering; see e.g., [4,6] for more details. Hence, if they can be extended when their orthogonality property is preserved, new applications should naturally appear. The following theorem shows this matter.
Theorem 1
([18]). Let be a sequence of independent symmetric functions that satisfy the differential equation
where and are real functions and is a sequence of constants. If and are even functions and is odd, then
where denotes the corresponding weight function as
Of course, the weight function defined in (53) must be positive and even on and must be a root of the function
i.e., . Notice since is an even function, the relation follows automatically.
Based on the above theorem, many symmetric orthogonal functions were recently generalized; see, for example, [19]. In this section, by applying Theorem 1 and the polynomial sequence (22), we establish a class of symmetric orthogonal X-polynomials and introduce four special cases of it in the sequel.
To obtain a symmetric differential equation of type (52), we first substitute
into Equation (54) to obtain
In a similar manner, for
we obtain
Now, if for simplicity we assume that
and
the differential Equation (57) changes to
with the polynomial solution
Therefore, by defining the symbol
and combining both equations (56) and (58) in a unique form, we finally obtain
with the symmetric polynomial solution
Corollary 4.
If in Theorem 1 we take
and
then its symmetric polynomial solution, i.e.,
is orthogonal with respect to the weight function
which can be simplified as
for
Remark 2.
If in (62) we take , which is equivalent to , then we will reach a symmetric class of orthogonal polynomials. In other words, let and consider the differential equation
whose polynomial solution can be directly represented as [19]
Additionally, the weight function corresponding to these polynomials is as [19]
Now, replacing in (62) gives
Therefore, the symmetric polynomial (61) can be directly represented for as follows
There are four sequences of symmetric exceptional orthogonal X-polynomials as follows.
6.1. First Symmetric Class
Assume in Corollary 4 that
with the symmetric polynomial solution
According to Theorem 1, the symmetric polynomials (63) are orthogonal with respect to the weight function
on if , and , (or ) if , (or ).
By noting remark 2, there are three particular cases of the symmetric polynomial for and .
If , then we have
If , then
and, finally for , the corresponding symmetric polynomial is given by
6.2. Second Symmetric Class
Assume in Corollary 4 that
with the symmetric polynomial solution
According to Theorem 1, the symmetric polynomials (64) are orthogonal with respect to the weight function
on if and , (or ) if , (or ).
By noting remark 2, there are two particular cases of the symmetric polynomial for and .
If , then we have
and for , the corresponding symmetric polynomial is given by
6.3. Third Symmetric Class
Assume in Corollary 4 that
with the symmetric polynomial solution
As three particular cases for , and , we respectively have
and
According to Theorem 1, the symmetric polynomials (65), , are finitely orthogonal with respect to the weight function
on if
To observe that why the limitation on N is , first consider the differential equation
in which and are, respectively, computed as
and
6.4. Fourth Symmetric Class
Assume in Corollary 4 that
with the symmetric polynomial solution
As two particular cases for and , we respectively have
and
According to Theorem 1, the symmetric polynomials (70), , are finitely orthogonal with respect to the weight function
on if and . To observe that why the limitation on N is , first consider the differential equation
in which and are respectively computed as
and
Multiplying by and in relations (72) and (73) respectively and subtracting them and finally integrating from both sides on gives
Corollary 5.
There are, in total, four sequences of symmetric orthogonal X-polynomials as follows:
- 1.
- Infinite X symmetric polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function
- 2.
- Infinite X symmetric polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function
- 3.
- Finite X symmetric polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function
- 4.
- Finite X symmetric polynomials orthogonal with respect to the weight function
In all four above-mentioned cases, and μ is a real parameter such that .
7. Conclusions
In this paper, a unified classification of all exceptional orthogonal X-polynomials of symmetric and nonsymmetric types is established as a solution of generic second-order differential equations. Ten extended differential equations are introduced, and it is shown that they have polynomial solutions; six of them are X-orthogonal and four of them are X-symmetric orthogonal. When it comes to the classification nonsymmetric types, the key point is that the weight functions corresponding to the six sequences are exactly a multiplication of Pearson distributions family. Moreover, the finite cases of nonsymmetric exceptional X-polynomials orthogonal on infinite intervals and the class of symmetric orthogonal X-polynomials are introduced in this paper for the first time. More interesting properties of these polynomials and their applications in theoretical and computational [20] mathematical physics can be investigated in future research.
Author Contributions
Investigation, M.M.-J. and Z.M.; validation, M.M.-J., Z.M. and N.S.; conceptualization, M.M.-J. and Z.M.; methodology, M.M.-J., Z.M. and N.S.; formal analysis, M.M.-J., Z.M. and N.S.; funding acquisition, N.S.; writing—review and editing, M.M.-J., Z.M. and N.S.; writing—original draft preparation, M.M.-J. and Z.M. The authors contributed equally to the work. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
The work of the first author has been supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation under the grant number: Ref 3.4—IRN—1128637—GF-E. Partial financial support of this work, under Grant No. GP249507 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada is gratefully acknowledged by the second author.
Data Availability Statement
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.
Acknowledgments
The work of the first author has been supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation under the grant number: Ref 3.4—IRN—1128637—GF-E. Partial financial support of this work under Grant Nos. GP249507 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada is gratefully acknowledged (NS).
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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