5.8 Some Applications of Bessel Functions 333
(
x^3 X′
)′
+λ^2 x^3 X= 0 , a<x<b, (31)
X(a)= 0 , X(b)= 0 , (32)
Y′′−λ^2 Y= 0 , −c<y<c. (33)
Equation (31) may be put in the form
X′′+^3 xX′+λ^2 X= 0 , a<x<b.
By comparing to Eq. (1) we find thatα=−1,γ=1, andp=1 and that the
generalsolutionofEq.(31)is
X(x)=^1 x
(
AJ 1 (λx)+BY 1 (λx)
)
.
Because the pointx=0 is not included in the intervala<x<b,thereisno
problem with boundedness. Instead we must satisfy the boundary conditions
Eq. (32), which after some algebra have the form
AJ 1 (λa)+BY 1 (λa)= 0 ,
AJ 1 (λb)+BY 1 (λb)= 0.
Not bothAandBmay be zero, so the determinant of these simultaneous
equations must be zero:
J 1 (λa)Y 1 (λb)−J 1 (λb)Y 1 (λa)= 0.
Some solutions of the equation are tabulated for various values ofb/a.For
instance, ifb/a= 2 .5, the first three eigenvaluesλ^2 are
( 2. 156
a
) 2
,
( 4. 223
a
) 2
,
( 6. 307
a
) 2
.
We n o w c a n t a k eXnto be
Xn(x)=^1
x
(
Y 1 (λna)J 1 (λnx)−J 1 (λna)Y 1 (λnx)
)
, (34)
and the solution of Eqs. (28)–(30) has the form
u(x,y)=
∑∞
n= 1
anXn(x)
cosh(λny)
cosh(λnc). (35)
Thea’s are chosen to satisfy the boundary conditions Eq. (30), using the or-
thogonality principle∫
b
a
Xn(x)Xm(x)x^3 dx= 0 , n=m.
Notice that Eqs. (31) and (32) make up a regular Sturm–Liouville problem.