In
integral calculus, an elliptic integral is one of a number of related functions defined as the value of certain integrals, which were first studied by
Giulio Fagnano and
Leonhard Euler
Leonhard Euler ( ; ; ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss polymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician, geographer, and engineer. He founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made influential ...
(). Their name originates from their originally arising in connection with the problem of finding the
arc length
Arc length is the distance between two points along a section of a curve. Development of a formulation of arc length suitable for applications to mathematics and the sciences is a problem in vector calculus and in differential geometry. In the ...
of an
ellipse
In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focus (geometry), focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special ty ...
.
Modern mathematics defines an "elliptic integral" as any
function which can be expressed in the form
where is a
rational function of its two arguments, is a
polynomial of degree 3 or 4 with no repeated roots, and is a constant.
In general, integrals in this form cannot be expressed in terms of
elementary function
In mathematics, an elementary function is a function of a single variable (typically real or complex) that is defined as taking sums, products, roots and compositions of finitely many polynomial, rational, trigonometric, hyperbolic, a ...
s. Exceptions to this general rule are when has repeated roots, or when contains no odd powers of or if the integral is pseudo-elliptic. However, with the appropriate
reduction formula, every elliptic integral can be brought into a form that involves integrals over rational functions and the three
Legendre canonical forms, also known as the elliptic integrals of the first, second and third kind.
Besides the Legendre form given below, the elliptic integrals may also be expressed in
Carlson symmetric form. Additional insight into the theory of the elliptic integral may be gained through the study of the
Schwarz–Christoffel mapping. Historically,
elliptic functions were discovered as inverse functions of elliptic integrals.
Argument notation
''Incomplete elliptic integrals'' are functions of two arguments; ''complete elliptic integrals'' are functions of a single argument. These arguments are expressed in a variety of different but equivalent ways as they give the same elliptic integral. Most texts adhere to a canonical naming scheme, using the following naming conventions.
For expressing one argument:
* , the ''
modular angle''
* , the ''elliptic modulus'' or ''
eccentricity''
* , the ''parameter''
Each of the above three quantities is completely determined by any of the others (given that they are non-negative). Thus, they can be used interchangeably.
The other argument can likewise be expressed as , the ''amplitude'', or as or , where and is one of the
Jacobian elliptic functions.
Specifying the value of any one of these quantities determines the others. Note that also depends on . Some additional relationships involving include
The latter is sometimes called the ''delta amplitude'' and written as . Sometimes the literature also refers to the ''complementary parameter'', the ''complementary modulus,'' or the ''complementary modular angle''. These are further defined in the article on
quarter periods.
In this notation, the use of a vertical bar as delimiter indicates that the argument following it is the "parameter" (as defined above), while the backslash indicates that it is the modular angle. The use of a semicolon implies that the argument preceding it is the sine of the amplitude:
This potentially confusing use of different argument delimiters is traditional in elliptic integrals and much of the notation is compatible with that used in the reference book by
Abramowitz and Stegun and that used in the integral tables by
Gradshteyn and Ryzhik.
There are still other conventions for the notation of elliptic integrals employed in the literature. The notation with interchanged arguments, , is often encountered; and similarly for the integral of the second kind.
Abramowitz and Stegun substitute the integral of the first kind, , for the argument in their definition of the integrals of the second and third kinds, unless this argument is followed by a vertical bar: i.e. for . Moreover, their complete integrals employ the ''parameter'' as argument in place of the modulus , i.e. rather than . And the integral of the third kind defined by
Gradshteyn and Ryzhik, , puts the amplitude first and not the "characteristic" .
Thus one must be careful with the notation when using these functions, because various reputable references and software packages use different conventions in the definitions of the elliptic functions. For example,
Wolfram's
Mathematica software and
Wolfram Alpha define the complete elliptic integral of the first kind in terms of the parameter , instead of the elliptic modulus .
Incomplete elliptic integral of the first kind
The incomplete elliptic integral of the first kind is defined as
This is Legendre's trigonometric form of the elliptic integral; substituting and , one obtains Jacobi's algebraic form:
Equivalently, in terms of the amplitude and modular angle one has:
With one has:
demonstrating that this
Jacobian elliptic function is a simple inverse of the incomplete elliptic integral of the first kind.
The incomplete elliptic integral of the first kind has following addition theorem:
The elliptic modulus can be transformed that way:
Incomplete elliptic integral of the second kind
The incomplete elliptic integral of the second kind in Legendre's trigonometric form is
Substituting and , one obtains Jacobi's algebraic form:
Equivalently, in terms of the amplitude and modular angle:
Relations with the
Jacobi elliptic functions include
The
meridian arc
In geodesy and navigation, a meridian arc is the curve (geometry), curve between two points near the Earth's surface having the same longitude. The term may refer either to a arc (geometry), segment of the meridian (geography), meridian, or to its ...
length from the
equator
The equator is the circle of latitude that divides Earth into the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Southern Hemispheres of Earth, hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, about in circumferen ...
to
latitude
In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...
is written in terms of :
where is the
semi-major axis, and is the
eccentricity.
The incomplete elliptic integral of the second kind has following addition theorem:
The elliptic modulus can be transformed that way:
Incomplete elliptic integral of the third kind
The incomplete elliptic integral of the third kind is
or
The number is called the characteristic and can take on any value, independently of the other arguments. Note though that the value is infinite, for any .
A relation with the Jacobian elliptic functions is
The meridian arc length from the equator to latitude is also related to a special case of :
Complete elliptic integral of the first kind
Elliptic Integrals are said to be 'complete' when the amplitude and therefore . The complete elliptic integral of the first kind may thus be defined as
or more compactly in terms of the incomplete integral of the first kind as
It can be expressed as a
power series
where is the
Legendre polynomials
In mathematics, Legendre polynomials, named after Adrien-Marie Legendre (1782), are a system of complete and orthogonal polynomials with a wide number of mathematical properties and numerous applications. They can be defined in many ways, and t ...
, which is equivalent to
where denotes the
double factorial
In mathematics, the double factorial of a number , denoted by , is the product of all the positive integers up to that have the same Parity (mathematics), parity (odd or even) as . That is,
n!! = \prod_^ (n-2k) = n (n-2) (n-4) \cdots.
Restated ...
. In terms of the Gauss
hypergeometric function, the complete elliptic integral of the first kind can be expressed as
The complete elliptic integral of the first kind is sometimes called the
quarter period. It can be computed very efficiently in terms of the
arithmetic–geometric mean:
Therefore, the modulus can be transformed as:
This expression is valid for all
and :
Relation to the gamma function
If and
(where is the
modular lambda function), then is expressible in closed form in terms of the
gamma function. For example, , and give, respectively,
and
and
More generally, the condition that
be in an
imaginary quadratic field[ can be analytically extended to the complex plane.] is sufficient. For instance, if , then and
Asymptotic expressions
This approximation has a relative precision better than for . Keeping only the first two terms is correct to 0.01 precision for .
Differential equation
The differential equation for the elliptic integral of the first kind is
A second solution to this equation is
. This solution satisfies the relation
Continued fraction
A
continued fraction expansion is:
where the
nome is
in its definition.
Inverting the period ratio
Here, we use the complete elliptic integral of the first kind with the ''parameter''
instead, because the squaring function introduces problems when inverting in the complex plane. So let
:
and let
:
:
be the
theta functions.
The equation
:
can then be solved (provided that a solution
exists) by
:
which is in fact the
modular lambda function.
For the purposes of computation, the error analysis is given by
:
:
where
and
.
Also
:
where
.
Complete elliptic integral of the second kind
The complete elliptic integral of the second kind is defined as
or more compactly in terms of the incomplete integral of the second kind as
For an ellipse with semi-major axis and semi-minor axis and eccentricity , the complete elliptic integral of the second kind is equal to one quarter of the
circumference
In geometry, the circumference () is the perimeter of a circle or ellipse. The circumference is the arc length of the circle, as if it were opened up and straightened out to a line segment. More generally, the perimeter is the curve length arou ...
of the ellipse measured in units of the semi-major axis . In other words:
The complete elliptic integral of the second kind can be expressed as a
power series
which is equivalent to
In terms of the
Gauss hypergeometric function, the complete elliptic integral of the second kind can be expressed as
The modulus can be transformed that way:
Computation
Like the integral of the first kind, the complete elliptic integral of the second kind can be computed very efficiently using the
arithmetic–geometric mean.
Define sequences and , where , and the recurrence relations , hold. Furthermore, define
By definition,
Also
Then
In practice, the arithmetic-geometric mean would simply be computed up to some limit. This formula converges quadratically for all . To speed up computation further, the relation can be used.
Furthermore, if and
(where is the
modular lambda function), then is expressible in closed form in terms of
and hence can be computed without the need for the infinite summation term. For example, , and give, respectively,
and
and
Derivative and differential equation
A second solution to this equation is .
Complete elliptic integral of the third kind
The complete elliptic integral of the third kind can be defined as
Note that sometimes the elliptic integral of the third kind is defined with an inverse sign for the ''characteristic'' ,
Just like the complete elliptic integrals of the first and second kind, the complete elliptic integral of the third kind can be computed very efficiently using the arithmetic-geometric mean.
Partial derivatives
Jacobi zeta function
In 1829, Jacobi defined the Jacobi zeta function:
It is periodic in
with minimal period
. It is related to the
Jacobi zn function by
. In the literature (e.g. Whittaker and Watson (1927)), sometimes
means Wikipedia's
. Some authors (e.g. King (1924)) use
for both Wikipedia's
and
.
Legendre's relation
The
Legendre's relation or ''Legendre Identity'' shows the relation of the integrals K and E of an elliptic modulus and its anti-related counterpart in an integral equation of second degree:
For two modules that are Pythagorean counterparts to each other, this relation is valid:
For example:
:
And for two modules that are tangential counterparts to each other, the following relationship is valid:
:
For example:
:
The Legendre's relation for tangential modular counterparts results directly from the Legendre's identity for Pythagorean modular counterparts by using the
Landen modular transformation on the Pythagorean counter modulus.
Special identity for the lemniscatic case
For the lemniscatic case, the elliptic modulus or specific eccentricity ε is equal to half the square root of two. Legendre's identity for the lemniscatic case can be proved as follows:
According to the
Chain rule
In calculus, the chain rule is a formula that expresses the derivative of the Function composition, composition of two differentiable functions and in terms of the derivatives of and . More precisely, if h=f\circ g is the function such that h ...
these derivatives hold:
:
:
By using the
Fundamental theorem of calculus these formulas can be generated:
:
:
The
Linear combination
In mathematics, a linear combination or superposition is an Expression (mathematics), expression constructed from a Set (mathematics), set of terms by multiplying each term by a constant and adding the results (e.g. a linear combination of ''x'' a ...
of the two now mentioned integrals leads to the following formula:
:
:
By forming the original antiderivative related to x from the function now shown using the
Product rule this formula results:
:
:
If the value
is inserted in this integral identity, then the following identity emerges:
:
:
This is how this lemniscatic excerpt from Legendre's identity appears:
:
Generalization for the overall case
Now the modular general case
is worked out. For this purpose, the derivatives of the complete elliptic integrals are derived after the modulus
and then they are combined. And then the Legendre's identity balance is determined.
Because the derivative of the ''circle function'' is the negative product of the ''identical mapping function'' and the reciprocal of the circle function:
:
These are the derivatives of K and E shown in this article in the sections above:
: