Special Functions in Physics with MATLAB

This handbook focuses on special functions in physics in the real and complex domain. It covers more than 170 different functions with additional numerical hints for efficient computation, which are useful to anyone who needs to program with other programming languages as well. The book comes with MATLAB-based programs for each of these functions and a detailed html-based documentation. Some of the explained functions are: Gamma and Beta functions; Legendre functions, which are linked to quantum mechanics and electrodynamics; Bessel functions; hypergeometric functions, which play an important role in mathematical physics; orthogonal polynomials, which are largely used in computational physics; and Riemann zeta functions, which play an important role, e.g.,  in quantum chaos or string theory. The book’s primary audience are scientists, professionals working in research areas of industries, and advanced students in physics, applied mathematics, and engineering.

Wolfgang Schweizer obtained his doctoral degree in physics from the University of Tübingen in 1985, received his Venia Legendi in theoretical physics in 1995, and was appointed extraordinary professor in 2002. In the period 1987–1988, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Mathematics at the RHBNC (University London) and, from 1996 to 1999, at the University of Bochum, where he was involved in a research project granted by the German Research Foundation. Apart from that, he was teaching in the Department of Theoretical Astrophysics and Computational Physics at the University of Tübingen, focusing on computational physics till 2018 and doing research till 2000. In the last two decades, he worked at Math Works in Germany, where he became manager of the training department.