Gaussian quadrature Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Gaussian quadrature is a quadrature rule that chooses both sample locations and coefficients to achieve unusually high polynomial exactness. For a finite interval with , assume the integration weight is integrable and positive almost everywhere. DefineLet be the monic orthogonal polynomial of polynomial degree for the inner product : it satisfies for every polynomial of polynomial degree below . The polynomial roots of are distinct and inside ; take them as the nodes . Integrate the Lagrange cardinal polynomials to obtain . These coefficients are positive, andThe integration weight and the discrete coefficients play different roles: specifies the integral being approximated, while tell us how much each sample contributes.[ref]
https://dlmf.nist.gov/3.5#v. Nico M. Temme, NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions, §3.5(v), Gauss quadrature: nodes, coefficients and exactness
A proof outline explains the gain over simply integrating an arbitrary polynomial interpolation. Use polynomial division to write , with and . Orthogonality makes , and sampling at the polynomial roots of makes . The Lagrange cardinal polynomials recover exactly, so both expressions agree. Also , since has polynomial degree . This is the mechanism behind positive weights of Gaussian quadrature.
For a concrete two-node example, set on . The Legendre polynomial has polynomial roots . Its monic polynomial version has zero integral against both and , as required. Symmetry and exactness for the constant polynomial give . Thus the Gauss–Legendre instance of Gaussian quadrature isDirect evaluation on gives , exactly their integrals. For the polynomial , two samples therefore give exactly. But for the rule gives , whereas the integral is : the error is .
Analytical illustration of two-node Gauss–Legendre sampling: exact monomial integrals through degree three and failure at degree four
. Details. The ceiling is sharp for distinct real nodes under the positive-weight assumptions. Their squared nodal polynomial has polynomial degree , is zero at every sample, and has a strictly positive weighted integral. Thus no such quadrature rule integrates every polynomial of polynomial degree exactly. Nor does Gaussian quadrature integrate every nonpolynomial function exactly: the same two-node example gives , while .
Gaussian quadrature is useful when evaluations are costly and a modest polynomial captures the integrand well. More precisely, for a continuous function and any polynomial of polynomial degree at most , positivity and constant exactness giveThe uniform norm on measures the approximation between samples. This bound connects quadrature rule accuracy to uniform approximation, rather than promising an error from sample count alone. Corners, sharp unresolved features and roundoff error require their own assessment; the absolute value function example already shows why polynomial exactness is a qualified guarantee.
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A power series encoding a sequence through its coefficients. It turns combinatorial splitting and concatenation rules into algebraic identities. A counting generating function is not necessarily a probability generating function: its coefficients need not sum to one.
Gram matrix representation of a trigonometric polynomial Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
Under the displayed diagonal-sum convention, set on the unit circle. A Hermitian matrix then givesConsequently proves nonnegativity. Conversely the Fejér–Riesz theorem produces the rank-one spectral-factor Gram matrix. This gives a semidefinite programming representation of nonnegative trigonometric polynomials. The reversed convention instead uses the unconjugated monomial vector.
Great Picard theorem Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Near an essential singularity, a holomorphic function takes every complex value, with at most one exception, infinitely often.
Gupta-Bleuler null-state quotient 2026-10-05
Choose with the standard temporal and longitudinal polarization vectors. The physical pre-space is the common kernel of all . In each regulated mode, acts on creator polynomials as and as , so the constraint kernel consists of transverse creator polynomials and polynomials in . Since , these latter excitations remain constrained. They are orthogonal to every constrained state because . Quotienting this radical of a Hermitian form leaves only the transverse bosonic Fock space with a positive inner product. The constraint alone gives a positive semidefinite Hermitian form; quotienting removes its null directions. If starting from finite-particle creator polynomials, take the Hilbert space completion of this positive quotient to obtain the physical Hilbert space.
Hadamard factorization theorem 2026-10-07
An entire function of finite order factors as its canonical zero product times the exponential of a polynomial. For order at most one and nonzero value at zero, it has the form . Genus-one factors converge when . A zero-free function of this order is therefore the exponential of an affine polynomial.
