Laplace transform
Let be a function defined on the interval . TheLaplace transform
of is the function defined by
provided that the integral converges. 11Depending on the definition ofintegral one is using, one may prefer to define the Laplace transform as It suffices that be defined when and can be complex. We willusually denote the Laplace transform of by . Someof the most common Laplace transforms are:
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
For more particular Laplace transforms, see the table of Laplacetransforms.
Notice the Laplace transform is a linear transformation. It is worth noting that, if
for some , then is an analytic function in the complex half-plane.
Much like the Fourier transform, the Laplace transform has a convolution
. However, the form of the convolution used is different.
where
and
The most popular usage of the Laplace transform is to solveinitial value problems by taking the Laplace transform of bothsides of an ordinary differential equation
; see the entry“image equation (http://planetmath.org/ImageEquation)”.