Laplacian Spherical Harmonics Overview

25/05/2025 48 min

Listen "Laplacian Spherical Harmonics Overview"

Episode Synopsis

Overview of Laplacian spherical harmonics, explaining their definition as functions on a sphere intrinsically linked to Laplace's equation and highlighting their mathematical foundations, including orthogonality and completeness. It traces their historical development from celestial mechanics to modern physics. The sources emphasize their versatility in solving partial differential equations with spherical symmetry and showcase their extensive applications across fields such as quantum mechanics, geophysics, computer graphics, astronomy, acoustics, medical imaging, and materials science. Finally, the texts touch upon computational aspects, including the challenges of numerical stability and the Gibbs phenomenon, and explore recent research and potential future directions, particularly in synergy with machine learning.