Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

206 submissions , 164 unreviewed
5,103 questions , 2,249 unanswered
5,355 answers , 22,794 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
820 active unimported users
More ...

  Dirac Delta of a Dirac Delta.

+ 1 like - 0 dislike
1052 views

After watching a graduate course in Quantum Physics 2, and after hearing the lecturer saying a lot of times Dirac Delta.

It had occurred to me, can you have such a thing as a Dirac Delta of a Dirac Delta, etc?

Something like: $\delta(\delta(x-x_0))$, and $\delta^{n}(x-x_0):=\delta^{n-1}(\delta(x-x_0))$?

Does it have applications in physics?

How would you rigorously define such a composition of Dirac Deltas?

Another thing, would such a thing converge and in which sense would it converge if we let $n\to \infty$?

asked May 2, 2023 in Mathematics by MathematicalPhysicist (205 points) [ revision history ]

What should be the intended meaning of such a strange construct? A function in the dual of the space of smooth real-valued function on the space of distributions?

I myself am not sure if it has any physical application. I guess at the moment it's a pure mathematical ill-defined construct that needs quite a lot of work to make it rigorous.

I guess from your response that you aren't aware of any applications as of yet.

Thank you for your response, I need to find time to work on this.

In order to speak seriously of such a construction, you have to encounter it in some real calculations. Otherwise your question is an idle play with no applications.

I agree with Vladimir Kalitvianski that such an expression, should it indeed arise, is best disentangled in the context of the specific calculation wherein it occurs. I suspect that such expressions (or questions) at least in part are born out of writing $\delta$ as a function.

If such an expression has to be resolved, it may help to redo the relevant calculations using approximations to the "$\delta$-function", like $g$ a normalised Gaussian (or similarly behaved function) and considering sequences of functions $g_\varepsilon(x)=(1/\varepsilon)g(x/\varepsilon)$ with $\varepsilon\rightarrow0$ at the end of the calculation. With repeated $\delta$s there could be several independent parameters instead of only $\varepsilon$, and you have control over the order in which the limits are taken. 

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar$ysi$\varnothing$sOverflow
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...