Ciro Santilli @cirosantilli 37

Shows up when trying to solve 2D wave equation on a circular domain in polar coordinates with separation of variables, where we have to decompose the initial condition in termes of a fourier-Bessel series, exactly like the Fourier series appears when solving the wave equation in linear coordinates.

For the same fundamental reasons, also appears when calculating the Schrödinger equation solution for the hydrogen atom.

Finding a complete basis such that each vector solves a given differential equation is the basic method of solving partial differential equation through separation of variables.

The first example of this you must see is solving partial differential equations with the Fourier series.

Notable examples:

Show up in the solution of the quantum harmonic oscillator after separation of variables leading into the time-independent Schrödinger equation, much like solving partial differential equations with the Fourier series.

I.e.: they are both:

Show up when solving the Laplace's equation on spherical coordinates by separation of variables, which leads to the differential equation shown at: en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Legendre_polynomials&oldid=1018881414#Definition_via_differential_equation.

Determines energy. This comes out directly from the resolution of the Schrödinger equation solution for the hydrogen atom where we have to set some arbitrary values of energy by separation of variables just like we have to set some arbitrary numbers when solving partial differential equations with the Fourier series. We then just happen to see that only certain integer values are possible to satisfy the equations.

See: math.stackexchange.com/questions/579453/real-world-application-of-fourier-series/3729366#3729366 from heat equation solution with Fourier series.

Separation of variables of certain equations like the heat equation and wave equation are solved immediately by calculating the Fourier series of initial conditions!

Other basis besides the Fourier series show up for other equations, e.g.:

Before reading any further, you must understand heat equation solution with Fourier series, which uses separation of variables.

Once that example is clear, we see that the exact same separation of variables can be done to the Schrödinger equation. If we name the constant of the separation of variables $E$ for energy, we get:

Because the time part of the equation is always the same and always trivial to solve, all we have to do to actually solve the Schrodinger equation is to solve the time independent one, and then we can construct the full solution trivially.

Once we've solved the time-independent part for each possible $E$, we can construct a solution exactly as we did in heat equation solution with Fourier series: we make a weighted sum over all possible $E$ to match the initial condition, which is analogous to the Fourier series in the case of the heat equation to reach a final full solution:

The fact that this approximation of the initial condition is always possible from is mathematically proven by some version of the spectral theorem based on the fact that The Schrodinger equation Hamiltonian has to be Hermitian and therefore behaves nicely.

It is interesting to note that solving the time-independent Schrodinger equation can also be seen exactly as an eigenvalue equation where:The only difference from usual matrix eigenvectors is that we are now dealing with an infinite dimensional vector space.

Furthermore:

Bibliography:

Correspond to the angular part of Laplace's equation in spherical coordinates after using separation of variables as shown at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_harmonics#Laplace's_spherical_harmonics

Describes perfect lossless waves on the surface of a string, or on a water surface.

Uniqueness: math.stackexchange.com/questions/1113622/uniqueness-of-solutions-to-the-wave-equation

As mentioned at: math.stackexchange.com/questions/579453/real-world-application-of-fourier-series/3729366#3729366 from solving partial differential equations with the Fourier series citing courses.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/view_material/1720, analogously to the heat equation, the wave linear equation can be be solved nicely with separation of variables.