Beta

From specialfunctionswiki
Revision as of 23:12, 1 April 2015 by Tom (talk | contribs)
Jump to: navigation, search

The beta function is defined by the formula $$B(x,y)=\displaystyle\int_0^1 t^{x-1}(1-t)^{y-1}dt.$$

Properties

Theorem: $B(x,y)=B(y,x)$

Proof:

Theorem: (i) $B(x+1,y)=\dfrac{x}{x+y} B(x,y)$
(ii) $B(x,y+1)=\dfrac{y}{x+y}B(x,y)$

Proof:

Theorem

The following formula holds: $$B(x,y)=\dfrac{\Gamma(x)\Gamma(y)}{\Gamma(x+y)},$$ where $B$ denotes the beta function and $\Gamma$ denotes the gamma function.

Proof

References

Theorem

The following formula holds: $$B(x,y)=2 \displaystyle\int_0^{\frac{\pi}{2}} (\sin t)^{2x-1}(\cos t)^{2y-1} \mathrm{d}t,$$ where $B$ denotes the beta function, $\sin$ denotes the sine function, and $\cos$ denotes the cosine function.

Proof

From the definition, $$B(x,y)=\displaystyle\int_0^1 \xi^{x-1} (1-\xi)^{y-1} \mathrm{d}\xi.$$ Let $\xi=\sin^2(t)$. Then $d\xi = 2\sin(t)\cos(t)$. Also if $\xi=0$ then $0=\sin^2(t)$ implies that $t=\arcsin(0)=0$ and if $\xi=1$, then $1=\sin^2(t)$ implies $t=\arcsin(1)=\dfrac{\pi}{2}$. Therefore using substitution and the Pythagorean identity for sin and cos, $$\begin{array}{ll} B(x,y) &= \displaystyle\int_0^1 \xi^{x-1}(1-\xi)^{y-1} \mathrm{d}\xi \\ &= \displaystyle\int_0^{\frac{\pi}{2}} (\sin(t))^{2x-2} (1-\sin^2(t))^{y-1} 2 \sin(t)\cos(t) \mathrm{d}t \\ &= 2 \displaystyle\int_0^{\frac{\pi}{2}} (\sin(t))^{2x-1} (\cos(t))^{2y-1} \mathrm{d}t, \end{array}$$ as was to be shown. █

References

References

Bell. Special Functions
Special functions by Leon Hall