Chebyshev polynomials

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Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind are a set of orthogonal polynomials defined as the solutions to the Chebyshev differential equation and denoted Tn(x). They are used as an approximation to a least squares fit, and are a special case of the ultra-spherical polynomial (Gegenbauer polynomial) with α = 0. Chebyshev polynomial of the first kind, Tn(z) can be defined by the contour integral

T_n (z) = \frac{1}{4 \pi i} \oint \frac{(1-t^2)t^{-n-1}}{(1-2tz+t^2)} {\rm d}t

The first seven Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind are:

\left. T_0 (x) \right. =1


\left. T_1 (x) \right. =x


\left. T_2 (x) \right. =2x^2 -1


\left. T_3 (x) \right. =4x^3 - 3x


\left. T_4 (x) \right. =8x^4 - 8x^2 +1


\left. T_5 (x) \right. =16x^5 - 20x^3 +5x


\left. T_6 (x)\right. =32x^6  - 48x^4 + 18x^2 -1

[edit] Orthogonality

The Chebyshev polynomials are orthogonal polynomials with respect to the weighting function (1 − x2) − 1 / 2 such that

\int_{-1}^{1} \frac{T_m (x)T_n (x)  }{ \sqrt{1-x^2}} \mathrm{d} x= \left\{ \begin{array}{lll}
\frac{1}{2}\pi \delta_{(mn)} & ; & m \neq 0, n\neq 0 \\
\pi  & ; & m=n=0 \end{array} \right.

where δ(mn) is the Kronecker delta.

[edit] Applications in statistical mechanics

[edit] See also

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