Integrals related to the modified Bessel functions of the second kind

224 Views Asked by At

The problem arises from calculating the spatial dependence of the electric fields of a disk charge (charge uniformly distributed on a disk in the x-y plane). I can find the field in the x-y plane is scaled by: $$ F_1(b,r)=\frac{1}{2\pi} \int_0^b dx \int_0^{2\pi} d\theta x K_0\left(\sqrt{r^2+x^2-2rx\cos{\theta}}\right) $$ with $b$ the radius of the disk and $r$ the distance from the center of the disk.The modifield Bessel function $K_0(x)$ comes from the Fourier transform of the point-charge's field in the z-direction. The non-trivial solusion of $F_1$ is: $$ F_2(b,r)=1-b K_1(b) I_0(r) $$ for $r \leq b$ and $$ F_2(b,r)=b K_0(r) I_1(b) $$ for $ r > b$. But I cannot figure out how to achieve $F_2$ from $F_1$.

Here $K_0(x)$, $K_1(x)$, $I_0(x)$, and $I_1(x)$ are the modified Bessel function of the second and first kinds, respectively.

Later I found that the problem can be reduced to finding the solution of $$ F_3(b,r)=\int_0^{2\pi} d\theta K_0\left(\sqrt{r^2+x^2-2rx\cos{\theta}}\right) $$ The non-trivial solution of $F_3$ is $$ F_4(b,r) = 2\pi \left[ \theta(r-b) K_0(r) I_0(b) + \theta(b-r) K_0(b) I_0(r) \right] $$ with $ \theta(x)$ the Heaviside step function.

One can numerically test the identity of $F_1$ and $F_2$, and also of $F_3$ and $F_4$. I tried to find the answer from handbooks of integrals and special functions but was not successful.

Clearly, $F_1$ and $F_3$ are well-defined problems of mathematics, independent of the physical problems they are extracted from. So I raise the question here and hope someone could help me find the techniques necessary to do the integrals.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On

This result can be derived from the Graff addition theorem for the modified Bessel function (eq. (8) in Watson, XI, 11.3) which reads, for $K_0$ \begin{equation} K_0\left(\sqrt{ Z^2+z^2-2Zz\cos\phi} \right)=\sum_{m=-\infty}^\infty K_m(Z)I_m(z)\cos m\phi \end{equation} which is valid for $\left|z\right|<\left|Z\right|$.

For $0\le r\le b$, we first decompose the integral $F_1(b,r)$ into \begin{align} F_1(b,r)&=\frac{1}{2\pi} \int_0^b \int_0^{2\pi} K_0\left(\sqrt{r^2+x^2-2rx\cos{\theta}}\right)\,xdxd\theta \\ &=\frac{1}{2\pi} \int_0^{2\pi} d\theta\left[\int_0^r+\int_r^b\right]K_0\left(\sqrt{r^2+x^2-2rx\cos{\theta}}\right)\,xdx \end{align} For the first $x-$integral, we choose $z=x,Z=r$ in the Graff representation and $z=r,Z=x$ for the second. Only the terms with $m=0$ survive after the angular integration, then \begin{equation} F_1(b,r)=K_0(r)\int_0^rI_0(x)\,xdx+I_0(r)\int_r^bK_0(x)\,xdx \end{equation} These integrals are readily done (DLMF): \begin{equation} F_1(b,r)=rK_0(r)I_1(r)-bI_0(r)K_1(b)+rI_0(r)K_1(r) \end{equation} From the Wronskian of the modified Bessel functions, \begin{equation} I_{\nu}\left(z\right)K_{\nu+1}\left(z\right)+I_{\nu+1}\left(z\right)K_{\nu}\left(z\right)=1/z \end{equation} We deduce \begin{equation} F_1(b,r)=1-bI_0(r)K_1(b)=F_2(b,r) \end{equation} The same decomposition gives also the identity between $F_3$ and $F4$.