 Periodicity

Periodicity is invariance under translation by a nonzero period $P$: a periodic function satisfies $f(x+P)=f(x)$ at every point in its domain, with translation preserving the domain. For an angular coordinate on a full circle, single valuedness requires $2\pi$-periodicity. The sine and cosine factors $\sin (k\theta )$ and $\cos (k\theta )$ are $2\pi$-periodic for nonzero real $k$ precisely when $k$ is an integer. Their Fourier series supply the angular modes for the harmonic expansion on a disk.