Series solutions of Laguerre- and Jacobi-type differential equations in terms of orthogonal polynomials and physical applications

Abstract

We introduce two ordinary second-order linear differential equations of the Laguerre- and Jacobi-type. Solutions are written as infinite series of square integrable functions in terms of the Laguerre and Jacobi polynomials, respectively. The expansion coefficients of the series satisfy three-term recursion relations, which are solved in terms of orthogonal polynomials with continuous and/or discrete spectra. Most of these are well-known polynomials whereas few are not. We present physical applications of these differential equations in quantum mechanics.