Monday, February 20, 2017

mathematical physics - Integral of the product of three spherical harmonics



Does anyone know how to derive the following identity for the integral of the product of three spherical harmonics?:


2π0π0Ym1l1(θ,ϕ)Ym2l2(θ,ϕ)Ym3l3(θ,ϕ)sin(θ)dθdϕ=(2l1+1)(2l2+1)(2l3+1)4π(l1l2l3000)(l1l2l3m1m2m3)


Where the Yml(θ,ϕ) are spherical harmonics. Or does anyone know of a reference where the derivation is given?



Answer



Sakurai, Modern Quantum Mechanics, 2nd Ed. p.216


In his derivation the product of the first two spherical harmonics is expanded using the Clebsch-Gordan Series (which is also proved) to get the following equation.


Ym1l1(θ,ϕ)Ym2l2(θ,ϕ) =


lm(2l1+1)(2l2+1)(2l+1)4π(l1l2l000)(l1l2lm1m2m)(1)mYml(θ,ϕ)


Which makes the integral much easier.


Final Note: Sakurai writes his derivation in Clebsch-Gordan coefficients so the equation was changed to fit with the question asked.



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