Implementation of Spherical harmonics function in Igor

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Wed, 01/27/2016 - 02:56 am

Hello,
Question intended to the developers.

I am wondering about the input parameters 'q' and 'f' in the igor function sphericalHarmonics(L, M, q, f).
(The reference did not help me.)

Also for the associated Legendre polynomial : Pn m(x) ; the function available is legendreA(n, m, x) . What is x in this. I expected 'x' be a function which is cos(theta) usually. (x= value of cos(theta) here I think.) Please clarify.

Thank you.
I'm not a developer - but:
The reference clearly states the usage of these variables:
displayhelptopic "sphericalHarmonics"

Maybe you want to have a look at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_harmonics
in general and especially at the section
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_harmonics#Conventions
for further explanation.

x in the Legendre polynom is 'just' a variable with abs(x)<=1 (and could of course be the result of cos(theta) )
This might help for further explanation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Legendre_polynomials

Maybe a more precise specification of "wondering about" might help to improve my answer.
HJ

January 27, 2016 at 08:25 am - Permalink