Definition
There are two different ways of standardizing the Hermite polynomials:
(the "probabilists' Hermite polynomials"), and
(the "physicists' Hermite polynomials"). These two definitions are not exactly equivalent; either is a rescaling of the other, to wit
These are Hermite polynomial sequences of different variances; see the material on variances below.
The notation He and H is that used in the standard references Tom H. Koornwinder, Roderick S. C. Wong, and Roelof Koekoek et al. (2010) and Abramowitz & Stegun. The polynomials Hen are sometimes denoted by Hn, especially in probability theory, because
is the probability density function for the normal distribution with expected value 0 and standard deviation 1.
The first eleven probabilists' Hermite polynomials are:
and the first eleven physicists' Hermite polynomials are:
Read more about this topic: Hermite Polynomials
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)
“According to our social pyramid, all men who feel displaced racially, culturally, and/or because of economic hardships will turn on those whom they feel they can order and humiliate, usually women, children, and animalsjust as they have been ordered and humiliated by those privileged few who are in power. However, this definition does not explain why there are privileged men who behave this way toward women.”
—Ana Castillo (b. 1953)
“... we all know the wags definition of a philanthropist: a man whose charity increases directly as the square of the distance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)