by Olivier Vallée (Université d'Orléans, France) & Manuel Soares (DDEA des Yvelines, France)

Table of Contents (168k)
Preface (171k)
Chapter 1: A Historical Introduction: Sir George Biddell Airy (400k)

Addressed mainly to physicist and chemical physicist, this textbook is the result of a broad compilation of current knowledge on analytical properties of Airy functions. In particular, the calculus implying the Airy functions is developed with care. In the latter chapters, examples are given to succinctly illustrate the use of Airy functions in classical and quantum physics. The physicist, for instance in fluid mechanics, can find what he is looking for, in the references for works of molecular physics or in physics of surfaces, and vice versa.

The knowledge on Airy functions is frequently reviewed. The reason may be found in the need to express a physical phenomenon in terms of an effective and comprehensive analytical form for the whole scientific community.

• A Historical Introduction: Sir George Biddell Airy
• Definitions and Properties
• Primitives and Integrals of Airy Functions
• Transformations of Airy Functions
• The Uniform Approximation
• Generalization of Airy Functions
• Applications to Classical Physics
• Applications to Quantum Physics
• Appendix:
  • Numerical Computation of the Airy Functions