Chebyshev equation
Chebyshev’s equation is the second order linear differential equation
where is a real constant.
There are two independent solutions which are given as series by:
and
In each case, the coefficients are given by the recursion
with arising from the choice , ,and arising from the choice , .
The series converge for ; this is easy to see from the ratio test
and the recursion formula
above.
When is a non-negative integer, one of these series will terminate,giving a polynomial solution.If is even, then the series for terminates at .If is odd, then the series for terminates at .
These polynomials are, up to multiplication by a constant, the Chebyshev polynomials. These are the only polynomial solutions of the Chebyshev equation.
(In fact, polynomial solutions are also obtained when is a negative integer,but these are not new solutions, since the Chebyshev equation is invariant under the substitution of by .)