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legendre

Associated Legendre functions

Description

example

P = legendre(n,X) computes the associated Legendre functions of degree n and order m = 0, 1, ..., n evaluated for each element in X.

example

P = legendre(n,X,normalization) computes normalized versions of the associated Legendre functions. normalization can be 'unnorm' (default), 'sch', or 'norm'.

Examples

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Use the legendre function to operate on a vector and then examine the format of the output.

Calculate the second-degree Legendre function values of a vector.

deg = 2;
x = 0:0.1:0.2;
P = legendre(deg,x)
P = 3×3

   -0.5000   -0.4850   -0.4400
         0   -0.2985   -0.5879
    3.0000    2.9700    2.8800

The format of the output is such that:

  • Each row contains the function value for different values of m (the order of the associated Legendre function)

  • Each column contains the function value for a different value of x

x = 0x = 0.1x = 0.2m = 0P20(0)P20(0.1)P20(0.2)m = 1P21(0)P21(0.1)P21(0.2)m = 2P22(0)P22(0.1)P22(0.2)

The equation for the second-degree associated Legendre function P2m is

P2m(x)=(-1)m(1-x2)m/2dmdxm[12(3x2-1)].

Therefore, the value of P20(0) is

P20(0)=[12(3x2-1)]|x=0=-12.

This result agrees with P(1,1) = -0.5000.

Calculate the associated Legendre function values with several normalizations.

Calculate the first-degree, unnormalized Legendre function values P1m. The first row of values corresponds to m=0, and the second row to m=1.

x = 0:0.2:1;
n = 1;
P_unnorm = legendre(n,x)
P_unnorm = 2×6

         0    0.2000    0.4000    0.6000    0.8000    1.0000
   -1.0000   -0.9798   -0.9165   -0.8000   -0.6000         0

Next, compute the Schmidt seminormalized function values. Compared to the unnormalized values, the Schmidt form differs when m>0 by the scaling

(-1)m2(n-m)!(n+m)!.

For the first row, the two normalizations are the same, since m=0. For the second row, the scaling constant multiplying each value is -1.

P_sch = legendre(n,x,'sch')
P_sch = 2×6

         0    0.2000    0.4000    0.6000    0.8000    1.0000
    1.0000    0.9798    0.9165    0.8000    0.6000         0

C1 = (-1) * sqrt(2*factorial(0)/factorial(2))
C1 = -1

Lastly, compute the fully normalized function values. Compared to the unnormalized values, the fully normalized form differs by the scaling factor

(-1)m(n+12)(n-m)!(n+m)!.

This scaling factor applies for all values of m, so the first and second rows have different scaling factors.

P_norm = legendre(n,x,'norm')
P_norm = 2×6

         0    0.2449    0.4899    0.7348    0.9798    1.2247
    0.8660    0.8485    0.7937    0.6928    0.5196         0

Cm0 = sqrt((3/2))
Cm0 = 1.2247
Cm1 = (-1) * sqrt((3/2)/2)
Cm1 = -0.8660

Spherical harmonics arise in the solution to Laplace's equation and are used to represent functions defined on the surface of a sphere. Use legendre to compute and visualize the spherical harmonic for Y32.

The equation for spherical harmonics includes a term for the Legendre function, as well as a complex exponential:

Ylm(θ,ϕ)=(2l+1)(l-m)!4π(l+m)!Plm(cosθ)eimϕ,-lml.

First, create a grid of values to represent all combinations of 0θπ (colatitude angle) and 0ϕ2π (azimuthal angle). Here, the colatitude θ ranges from 0 at the North Pole, to π/2 at the Equator, and to π at the South Pole.

dx = pi/60;
col = 0:dx:pi;
az = 0:dx:2*pi;
[phi,theta] = meshgrid(az,col);

Calculate Plm(cosθ) on the grid for l=3.

l = 3;
Plm = legendre(l,cos(theta));

Since legendre computes the answer for all values of m, Plm contains some extra function values. Extract the values for m=2 and discard the rest. Use the reshape function to orient the results as a matrix with the same size as phi and theta.

m = 2;
if l ~= 0
    Plm = reshape(Plm(m+1,:,:),size(phi));
end

Calculate the spherical harmonic values for Y32.

a = (2*l+1)*factorial(l-m);
b = 4*pi*factorial(l+m);
C = sqrt(a/b);
Ylm = C .*Plm .*exp(1i*m*phi);

Convert the spherical coordinates to Cartesian coordinates. Here, π/2-θ becomes the latitude angle that ranges from π/2 at the North Pole, to 0 at the Equator, and to -π/2 at the South Pole. Plot the spherical harmonic for Y32 using both the positive and negative real values.

[Xm,Ym,Zm] = sph2cart(phi, pi/2-theta, abs(real(Ylm)));
surf(Xm,Ym,Zm)
title('$Y_3^2$ spherical harmonic','interpreter','latex')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title YSubScript 3 SuperScript 2 baseline spherical harmonic contains an object of type surface.

Input Arguments

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Degree of Legendre function, specified as a positive integer. For a specified degree, legendre computes Pnm(x) for all orders m from m = 0 to m = n.

Example: legendre(2,X)

Input values, specified as a scalar, vector, matrix, or multidimensional array of real values in the range [-1,1]. For example, with spherical harmonics it is common to use X = cos(theta) as the input values to compute Pnm(cosθ).

Example: legendre(2,cos(theta))

Data Types: single | double

Normalization type, specified as one of these values.

Example: legendre(n,X,'sch')

Output Arguments

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Associated Legendre function values, returned as a scalar, vector, matrix, or multidimensional array. The normalization of P depends on the value of normalization.

The size of P depends on the size of X:

  • If X is a vector, then P is a matrix of size (n+1)-by-length(X). The P(m+1,i) entry is the associated Legendre function of degree n and order m evaluated at X(i).

  • In general, P has one more dimension than X and each element P(m+1,i,j,k,...) contains the associated Legendre function of degree n and order m evaluated at X(i,j,k,...).

Limitations

The values of the unnormalized associated Legendre function overflow the range of double-precision numbers for n > 150 and the range of single-precision numbers for n > 28. This overflow results in Inf and NaN values. For orders larger than these thresholds, consider using the 'sch' or 'norm' normalizations instead.

More About

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Associated Legendre Functions

The associated Legendre functions y=Pnm(x) are solutions to the general Legendre differential equation

(1x2)d2ydx22xdydx+[n(n+1)m21x2]y=0.

n is the integer degree and m is the integer order of the associated Legendre function, such that 0mn.

The associated Legendre functions Pnm(x) are the most general solutions to this equation given by

Pnm(x)=(1)m(1x2)m/2dmdxmPn(x).

They are defined in terms of derivatives of the Legendre polynomials Pn(x), which are a subset of the solutions given by

Pn(x)=12nn!dndxn(x21)n.

The first few Legendre polynomials are

Value of nPn(x)
0P0(x)=1
1P1(x)=x
2P2(x)=12(3x21)

Schmidt Seminormalized Associated Legendre Functions

The Schmidt seminormalized associated Legendre functions are related to the unnormalized associated Legendre functions Pnm(x) by

Pn(x) for m=0,Snm(x)=(1)m2(nm)!(n+m)!Pnm(x) for m>0.

Fully Normalized Associated Legendre Functions

The fully normalized associated Legendre functions are normalized such that

11[Nnm(x)]2dx=1.

The normalized functions are related to the unnormalized associated Legendre functions Pnm(x) by

Nnm(x)=(1)m(n+12)(nm)!(n+m)!Pnm(x).

Algorithms

legendre uses a three-term backward recursion relationship in m. This recursion is on a version of the Schmidt seminormalized associated Legendre functions Qnm(x), which are complex spherical harmonics. These functions are related to the standard Abramowitz and Stegun [1] functions Pnm(x) by

Pnm(x)=(n+m)!(nm)!Qnm(x).

They are related to the Schmidt form by

m=0:Snm(x)=Qn0(x)m>0:Snm(x)=(1)m2Qnm(x).

References

[1] Abramowitz, M. and I. A. Stegun, Handbook of Mathematical Functions, Dover Publications, 1965, Ch.8.

[2] Jacobs, J. A., Geomagnetism, Academic Press, 1987, Ch.4.

Extended Capabilities

Version History

Introduced before R2006a