Sister Celine's polynomials in the quantum theory of angular momentum

Abstract

The polynomials introduced by Sister Celine cover different usual orthogonal polynomials as special cases. Among them, the Jacobi and discrete Hahn polynomials are of particular interest for the quantum theory of angular momentum. In this note, we show that characters of irreducible representations of the rotation group as well as Wigner rotation "d" matrices, can be expressed as Sister Celine's polynomials. Since many relations were proposed for the latter polynomials, such connections could lead to new identities for quantities important in quantum mechanics and atomic physics.