User:Atavoidirc/Functions
In mathematics, some functions or groups of functions are important enough to deserve their own names. This is a listing of articles which explain some of these functions in more detail. There is a large theory of special functions which developed out of statistics and mathematical physics. A modern, abstract point of view contrasts large function spaces, which are infinite-dimensional and within which most functions are 'anonymous', with special functions picked out by properties such as symmetry, or relationship to harmonic analysis and group representations.
Elementary functions
[edit]Elementary functions are functions built from basic operations (e.g. addition, exponentials, logarithms...)
Algebraic functions
[edit]Algebraic functions are functions that can be expressed as the solution of a polynomial equation with integer coefficients.
- Polynomials: Can be generated solely by addition, multiplication, and raising to the power of a positive integer.
- Constant function: polynomial of degree zero, graph is a horizontal straight line
- Linear function: First degree polynomial, graph is a straight line.
- Quadratic function: Second degree polynomial, graph is a parabola.
- Cubic function: Third degree polynomial.
- Quartic function: Fourth degree polynomial.
- Quintic function: Fifth degree polynomial.
- Sextic function: Sixth degree polynomial.
- Rational functions: A ratio of two polynomials.
- nth root
- Square root: Yields a number whose square is the given one.
- Cube root: Yields a number whose cube is the given one.
Elementary transcendental functions
[edit]Transcendental functions are functions that are not algebraic.
- Exponential function: raises a fixed number to a variable power.
- Hyperbolic functions: formally similar to the trigonometric functions.
- Logarithms: the inverses of exponential functions; useful to solve equations involving exponentials.
- Power functions: raise a variable number to a fixed power; also known as Allometric functions; note: if the power is a rational number it is not strictly a transcendental function.
- Periodic functions
- Trigonometric functions: sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant, cosecant, exsecant, excosecant, versine, coversine, vercosine, covercosine, haversine, hacoversine, havercosine, hacovercosine, etc.; used in geometry and to describe periodic phenomena. See also Gudermannian function.
Piecewise special functions
[edit]- Indicator function: maps x to either 1 or 0, depending on whether or not x belongs to some subset.
- Step function: A finite linear combination of indicator functions of half-open intervals.
- Heaviside step function: 0 for negative arguments and 1 for positive arguments. The integral of the Dirac delta function.
- Sawtooth wave
- Square wave
- Triangle wave
- Rectangular function
- Floor function: Largest integer less than or equal to a given number.
- Ceiling function: Smallest integer larger than or equal to a given number.
- Sign function: Returns only the sign of a number, as +1 or −1.
- Absolute value: distance to the origin (zero point)
- Sigma function: Sums of powers of divisors of a given natural number.
- Euler's totient function: Number of numbers coprime to (and not bigger than) a given one.
- Prime-counting function: Number of primes less than or equal to a given number.
- Partition function: Order-independent count of ways to write a given positive integer as a sum of positive integers.
- Möbius μ function: Sum of the nth primitive roots of unity, it depends on the prime factorization of n.
- Prime omega functions
- Chebyshev functions
- Liouville function, λ(n) = (–1)Ω(n)
- Von Mangoldt function, Λ(n) = log p if n is a positive power of the prime p
- Carmichael function
Antiderivatives of elementary functions
[edit]Name | Symbol | Formula |
---|---|---|
Logarithmic integral | ||
Exponential integral | ||
Sine integral | ||
Cosine integral | ||
Error function | ||
Complementary error function | ||
Fresnel integrall | ||
Dawson function | ||
Faddeeva function |
Gamma and related functions
[edit]- Gamma function: A generalization of the factorial function.
- Barnes G-function
- Beta function: Corresponding binomial coefficient analogue.
- Digamma function, Polygamma function
- Incomplete beta function
- Incomplete gamma function
- K-function
- Multivariate gamma function: A generalization of the Gamma function useful in multivariate statistics.
- Student's t-distribution
- Pi function Π(z)= zΓ(z)= (z)!
Elliptic and related functions
[edit]- Elliptic integrals: Arising from the path length of ellipses; important in many applications. Alternate notations include:
- Nome
- Quarter period
- Elliptic functions: The inverses of elliptic integrals; used to model double-periodic phenomena.
- Theta functions
- Neville theta functions
- Modular lambda function
- Closely related are the modular forms, which include
Bessel and related functions
[edit]- Airy function
- Bessel functions: Defined by a differential equation; useful in astronomy, electromagnetism, and mechanics.
- Bessel–Clifford function
- Kelvin functions
- Legendre function: From the theory of spherical harmonics.
- Scorer's function
- Sinc function
- Hermite polynomials
- Laguerre polynomials
- Chebyshev polynomials
- Synchrotron function
Riemann zeta and related functions
[edit]- Riemann zeta function: A special case of Dirichlet series.
- Riemann Xi function
- Dirichlet eta function: An allied function.
- Dirichlet beta function
- Dirichlet L-function
- Hurwitz zeta function
- Legendre chi function
- Lerch transcendent
- Polylogarithm and related functions:
- Incomplete polylogarithm
- Clausen function
- Complete Fermi–Dirac integral, an alternate form of the polylogarithm.
- Incomplete Fermi–Dirac integral
- Kummer's function
- Spence's function
- Riesz function
Hypergeometric and related functions
[edit]Name | Notation | Formula |
---|---|---|
Gaussian Hypergeometric Function | ||
Confluent hypergeometric function | ||
Generalized hypergeometric function | ||
Associated Legendre functions | ||
Meijer G-function | ||
Fox H-function |
Iterated exponential and related functions
[edit]Other standard special functions
[edit]- Lambert W function: Inverse of f(w) = w exp(w).
- Lamé function
- Mathieu function
- Mittag-Leffler function
- Painlevé transcendents
- Parabolic cylinder function
- Arithmetic–geometric mean
Miscellaneous functions
[edit]- Ackermann function: in the theory of computation, a computable function that is not primitive recursive.
- Dirac delta function: everywhere zero except for x = 0; total integral is 1. Not a function but a distribution, but sometimes informally referred to as a function, particularly by physicists and engineers.
- Dirichlet function: is an indicator function that matches 1 to rational numbers and 0 to irrationals. It is nowhere continuous.
- Thomae's function: is a function that is continuous at all irrational numbers and discontinuous at all rational numbers. It is also a modification of Dirichlet function and sometimes called Riemann function.
- Kronecker delta function: is a function of two variables, usually integers, which is 1 if they are equal, and 0 otherwise.
- Minkowski's question mark function: Derivatives vanish on the rationals.
- Weierstrass function: is an example of continuous function that is nowhere differentiable
See also
[edit]External links
[edit]- Special functions : A programmable special functions calculator.
- Special functions at EqWorld: The World of Mathematical Equations.
[[Category:Calculus|Functions] [[Category:Mathematics-related lists|Functions] [[Category:Number theory|Functions] [[Category:Functions and mappings| ]