Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
The type of integral considered, is of frequent occurrence in problems in the kinetic theory of gases and in particular is required in the paper which follows, in calculating viscosity. The result is an extension of one given by Berger, and the analysis follows closely the discussion of Gauss's formula for approximate quadrature in Whittaker and Robinson, The calculus of observations; the novelty lies in the use of Sonine polynomials, which are peculiarly well suited for the discussion of this type of integral.
* Berger, , Nova Acta Upsaliensis (3), 16 (1893).Google Scholar
† These are effectively the same polynomials as are used by Schrödinger in his wellknown papers on wave mechanics under the name of generalized Laguerre polynomials; but I have preferred to follow the nomenclature and notation of earlier authors—cf. for example Whittaker, and Watson, , Modern analysis, 4th ed. (Cambridge, 1927), p. 352,Google Scholar ex. 8, and Bateman, , Electrical and optical wave motion (Cambridge, 1915), 98.Google Scholar
‡ Cf. Burnett, , Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. (2), 39 (1935), 385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
* This case is trivial but is given for completeness and to illustrate the method.
* Cf. Chapman, , Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 211 (1911), 433;CrossRefGoogle ScholarMassey, and Mohr, , Proc. Roy. Soc. 141 (1933), 434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar