In
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
,
physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
and
engineering
Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
, the sinc function ( ), denoted by , has two forms, normalized and unnormalized.
[.]
In mathematics, the historical unnormalized sinc function is defined for by
Alternatively, the unnormalized sinc function is often called the
sampling function, indicated as Sa(''x'').
In
digital signal processing
Digital signal processing (DSP) is the use of digital processing, such as by computers or more specialized digital signal processors, to perform a wide variety of signal processing operations. The digital signals processed in this manner are a ...
and
information theory
Information theory is the mathematical study of the quantification (science), quantification, Data storage, storage, and telecommunications, communication of information. The field was established and formalized by Claude Shannon in the 1940s, ...
, the normalized sinc function is commonly defined for by
In either case, the value at is defined to be the limiting value
for all real (the limit can be proven using the
squeeze theorem
In calculus, the squeeze theorem (also known as the sandwich theorem, among other names) is a theorem regarding the limit of a function that is bounded between two other functions.
The squeeze theorem is used in calculus and mathematical a ...
).
The
normalization
Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science
* Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations
* Normalization model, used in ...
causes the
definite integral
In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a sum, which is used to calculate areas, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental operations of calculus,Int ...
of the function over the real numbers to equal 1 (whereas the same integral of the unnormalized sinc function has a value of
). As a further useful property, the zeros of the normalized sinc function are the nonzero integer values of .
The normalized sinc function is the
Fourier transform
In mathematics, the Fourier transform (FT) is an integral transform that takes a function as input then outputs another function that describes the extent to which various frequencies are present in the original function. The output of the tr ...
of the
rectangular function
The rectangular function (also known as the rectangle function, rect function, Pi function, Heaviside Pi function, gate function, unit pulse, or the normalized boxcar function) is defined as
\operatorname\left(\frac\right) = \Pi\left(\frac\ri ...
with no scaling. It is used in the concept of
reconstructing a continuous bandlimited signal from uniformly spaced
samples of that signal.
The only difference between the two definitions is in the scaling of the
independent variable
A variable is considered dependent if it depends on (or is hypothesized to depend on) an independent variable. Dependent variables are studied under the supposition or demand that they depend, by some law or rule (e.g., by a mathematical function ...
(the
axis) by a factor of . In both cases, the value of the function at the
removable singularity
In complex analysis, a removable singularity of a holomorphic function is a point at which the function is Undefined (mathematics), undefined, but it is possible to redefine the function at that point in such a way that the resulting function is ...
at zero is understood to be the limit value 1. The sinc function is then
analytic
Analytic or analytical may refer to:
Chemistry
* Analytical chemistry, the analysis of material samples to learn their chemical composition and structure
* Analytical technique, a method that is used to determine the concentration of a chemical ...
everywhere and hence an
entire function
In complex analysis, an entire function, also called an integral function, is a complex-valued function that is holomorphic on the whole complex plane. Typical examples of entire functions are polynomials and the exponential function, and any ...
.
The function has also been called the cardinal sine or sine cardinal function. The term sinc is a contraction of the function's full Latin name, the
[ and was introduced by Philip M. Woodward and I.L Davies in their 1952 article "Information theory and inverse probability in telecommunication", saying "This function occurs so often in Fourier analysis and its applications that it does seem to merit some notation of its own". It is alsoo used in Woodward's 1953 book ''Probability and Information Theory, with Applications to Radar''.]
The function itself was first mathematically derived in this form by Lord Rayleigh
John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh ( ; 12 November 1842 – 30 June 1919), was an English physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1904 "for his investigations of the densities of the most important gases and for his discovery ...
in his expression ( Rayleigh's formula) for the zeroth-order spherical Bessel function
Bessel functions, named after Friedrich Bessel who was the first to systematically study them in 1824, are canonical solutions of Bessel's differential equation
x^2 \frac + x \frac + \left(x^2 - \alpha^2 \right)y = 0
for an arbitrary complex ...
of the first kind.
Properties
The zero crossing
A zero-crossing is a point where the sign of a mathematical function changes (e.g. from positive to negative), represented by an intercept of the axis (zero value) in the graph of the function. It is a commonly used term in electronics, mathema ...
s of the unnormalized sinc are at non-zero integer multiples of , while zero crossings of the normalized sinc occur at non-zero integers.
The local maxima and minima of the unnormalized sinc correspond to its intersections with the cosine
In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side opposite that ...
function. That is, for all points where the derivative of is zero and thus a local extremum is reached. This follows from the derivative of the sinc function:
The first few terms of the infinite series for the coordinate of the -th extremum with positive coordinate are
where
and where odd lead to a local minimum, and even to a local maximum. Because of symmetry around the axis, there exist extrema with coordinates . In addition, there is an absolute maximum at .
The normalized sinc function has a simple representation as the infinite product
In mathematics, for a sequence of complex numbers ''a''1, ''a''2, ''a''3, ... the infinite product
:
\prod_^ a_n = a_1 a_2 a_3 \cdots
is defined to be the limit of the partial products ''a''1''a''2...''a'n'' as ''n'' increases without bound ...
:
and is related to the gamma function
In mathematics, the gamma function (represented by Γ, capital Greek alphabet, Greek letter gamma) is the most common extension of the factorial function to complex numbers. Derived by Daniel Bernoulli, the gamma function \Gamma(z) is defined ...
through Euler's reflection formula
In mathematics, a reflection formula or reflection relation for a function is a relationship between and . It is a special case of a functional equation. It is common in mathematical literature to use the term "functional equation" for what a ...
:
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 ...
discovered that
and because of the product-to-sum identity
Euler's product can be recast as a sum
The continuous Fourier transform of the normalized sinc (to ordinary frequency) is :
where the rectangular function
The rectangular function (also known as the rectangle function, rect function, Pi function, Heaviside Pi function, gate function, unit pulse, or the normalized boxcar function) is defined as
\operatorname\left(\frac\right) = \Pi\left(\frac\ri ...
is 1 for argument between − and , and zero otherwise. This corresponds to the fact that the sinc filter is the ideal (brick-wall filter, brick-wall, meaning rectangular frequency response) low-pass filter.
This Fourier integral, including the special case
is an improper integral (see Dirichlet integral) and not a convergent Lebesgue integral, as
The normalized sinc function has properties that make it ideal in relationship to interpolation of sampling (signal processing), sampled bandlimited functions:
* It is an interpolating function, i.e., , and for nonzero Number#Integers, integer .
* The functions ( integer) form an orthonormal basis for bandlimited functions in the Lp space, function space , with highest angular frequency (that is, highest cycle frequency ).
Other properties of the two sinc functions include:
* The unnormalized sinc is the zeroth-order spherical Bessel function
Bessel functions, named after Friedrich Bessel who was the first to systematically study them in 1824, are canonical solutions of Bessel's differential equation
x^2 \frac + x \frac + \left(x^2 - \alpha^2 \right)y = 0
for an arbitrary complex ...
of the first kind, . The normalized sinc is .
* where is the sine integral,
* (not normalized) is one of two linearly independent solutions to the linear ordinary differential equation The other is , which is not bounded at , unlike its sinc function counterpart.
* Using normalized sinc,
*
*
*
* The following improper integral involves the (not normalized) sinc function:
Relationship to the Dirac delta distribution
The normalized sinc function can be used as a ''Dirac delta function#Representations of the delta function, nascent delta function'', meaning that the following weak convergence (Hilbert space), weak limit holds:
This is not an ordinary limit, since the left side does not converge. Rather, it means that
for every Schwartz space, Schwartz function, as can be seen from the Fourier inversion theorem.
In the above expression, as , the number of oscillations per unit length of the sinc function approaches infinity. Nevertheless, the expression always oscillates inside an envelope of , regardless of the value of .
This complicates the informal picture of as being zero for all except at the point , and illustrates the problem of thinking of the delta function as a function rather than as a distribution. A similar situation is found in the Gibbs phenomenon.
We can also make an immediate connection with the standard Dirac representation of by writing and
which makes clear the recovery of the delta as an infinite bandwidth limit of the integral.
Summation
All sums in this section refer to the unnormalized sinc function.
The sum of over integer from 1 to equals :
The sum of the squares also equals :
When the signs of the addends alternate and begin with +, the sum equals :
The alternating sums of the squares and cubes also equal :
Series expansion
The Taylor series of the unnormalized function can be obtained from that of the sine (which also yields its value of 1 at ):
The series converges for all . The normalized version follows easily:
Leonhard Euler, Euler famously compared this series to the expansion of the infinite product form to solve the Basel problem.
Higher dimensions
The product of 1-D sinc functions readily provides a multivariable calculus, multivariate sinc function for the square Cartesian grid (Lattice graph, lattice): , whose Fourier transform
In mathematics, the Fourier transform (FT) is an integral transform that takes a function as input then outputs another function that describes the extent to which various frequencies are present in the original function. The output of the tr ...
is the indicator function of a square in the frequency space (i.e., the brick wall defined in 2-D space). The sinc function for a non-Cartesian Lattice (group), lattice (e.g., hexagonal lattice) is a function whose Fourier transform
In mathematics, the Fourier transform (FT) is an integral transform that takes a function as input then outputs another function that describes the extent to which various frequencies are present in the original function. The output of the tr ...
is the indicator function of the Brillouin zone of that lattice. For example, the sinc function for the hexagonal lattice is a function whose Fourier transform
In mathematics, the Fourier transform (FT) is an integral transform that takes a function as input then outputs another function that describes the extent to which various frequencies are present in the original function. The output of the tr ...
is the indicator function of the unit hexagon in the frequency space. For a non-Cartesian lattice this function can not be obtained by a simple tensor product. However, the explicit formula for the sinc function for the hexagonal lattice, hexagonal, body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic and other higher-dimensional lattices can be explicitly derived using the geometric properties of Brillouin zones and their connection to zonohedron, zonotopes.
For example, a hexagonal lattice can be generated by the (integer) linear span of the vectors
Denoting
one can derive[ the sinc function for this hexagonal lattice as
This construction can be used to design Lanczos window for general multidimensional lattices.][
]
Sinhc
Some authors, by analogy, define the hyperbolic sine cardinal function.
:
See also
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* (cartography)
References
Further reading
*
External links
* {{MathWorld, title=Sinc Function, urlname=SincFunction
Signal processing
Elementary special functions