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FrobeniusMethod THINGSTOTRY:
FoundationsofMathematics If isanordinarypointoftheordinarydifferentialequation,expand inaTaylorseriesabout .Commonly,the adjoint
expansionpointcanbetakenas ,resultingintheMaclaurinseries [3,8)
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Plug backintotheODEandgroupthecoefficientsbypower.Now,obtainarecurrencerelationforthe thterm,and
RecreationalMathematics writetheseriesexpansionintermsofthe s.Expansionsforthefirstfewderivativesare
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If isaregularsingularpointoftheordinarydifferentialequation,

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Lastupdated:MonFeb132017 solutionsmaybefoundbytheFrobeniusmethodorbyexpansioninaLaurentseries.IntheFrobeniusmethod,
assumeasolutionoftheform
Created,developed,and
nurturedbyEricWeisstein
atWolframResearch (8)

sothat

(9)

(10)

(11)

(12)

Now,plug backintotheODEandgroupthecoefficientsbypowertoobtainarecursionformulaforthe thterm,

andthenwritetheseriesexpansionintermsofthe s.Equatingthe termto0willproducethesocalledindicial
equation,whichwillgivetheallowedvaluesof intheseriesexpansion.

Asanexample,considertheBesseldifferentialequation

(13)

Plugging()into()yields

(14)

Theindicialequation,obtainedbysetting ,isthen

(15)

Since isdefinedasthefirstnonzeroterm, ,so .Forillustrationpurposes,ignore and

consideronlythecase (avoidingthespecialcase ),thenequation(14)requiresthat

(16)

(so )and

(17)

for ,3,...,so

(18)

for .Pluggingbackinto(),rearranging,andsimplifyingthengivestheseriessolutionthatdefinedtheBessel
functionofthefirstkind ,whichisthenonsingularsolutionto().(Consideringthecase proceeds
analogouslyandresultsinthesolution .)

Fuchs'stheoremguaranteesthatatleastonepowerseriessolutionwillbeobtainedwhenapplyingtheFrobenius
methodiftheexpansionpointisanordinary,orregular,singularpoint.Foraregularsingularpoint,aLaurentseries
 expansioncanalsobeused.Expand inaLaurentseries,letting

(19)

Plug backintotheODEandgroupthecoefficientsbypower.Now,obtainarecurrenceformulaforthe thterm,

andwritetheTaylorseriesintermsofthe s.

SEEALSO:
Fuchs'sTheorem,OrdinaryDifferentialEquation

REFERENCES:
Arfken,G."SeriesSolutionsFrobenius'Method."8.5inMathematicalMethodsforPhysicists,3rded.Orlando,FL:Academic
Press,pp.454467,1985.
Frobenius."UeberdieIntegrationderlinearenDifferentialgleichungendurchReihen."J.reineangew.Math.76,214235,1873.
Ince,E.L.Ch.5inOrdinaryDifferentialEquations.NewYork:Dover,1956.

ReferencedonWolfram|Alpha:FrobeniusMethod

CITETHISAS:
Weisstein,EricW."FrobeniusMethod."FromMathWorldAWolframWebResource.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/FrobeniusMethod.html

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