Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1 2
We incidentally remark that this result is consistent with the desired We determine the value of C by means of the initial value as fˆa (0) =
end result we wish to prove. Differentiating fˆa (w) with respect to the C = √12a . In other words,
independent variable w further gives
2
fˆa (w) = √1 e−w /(4a)
dfˆa
Z ∞
d 1 2 2a
(w) = √ e−ax e−iwx dx
dw dw 2π −∞ as we wanted to prove.
Z ∞
1 ∂ −ax2 −iwx
=√ (e e ) dx (2)
2π −∞ ∂w Concluding remarks
Z ∞
i 2
= −√ xe−ax e−iwx dx. It is particularly noteworthy that the Fourier transform of fa (x) is an-
2π −∞
other function of the same general form as the function itself. That is,
2
Integrating equation (2) by parts now gives fˆa (w) = e−kw in which k is a positive constant. This is highly remark-
able and does not hold in the general case. On the other hand, other
dfˆa iw ∞ −ax2 −iwx
Z
i 1 −ax2 −iwx ∞ functions do exist for which the Fourier transform is of the same form
(w) = − √ [− e e ]−∞ − e e dx
dw 2π | 2a {z } 2a −∞ as the original function, meaning that fa (x) is not entirely exceptional
Z ∞ =0 in this respect.
w 1 2 w
=− √ e−ax e−iwx dx = − fˆa (w),
2a 2π −∞ 2a
the latter equality following from the definition of the Fourier transform
of fa (x).
dfˆa w √
= − fˆa , fˆa (0) = 1/ 2a.
dw 2a
This is a linear, first order separable ordinary differential equation and
initial value to determine fˆa . The process of separation then gives
dfˆa w
= − dw
ˆ
fa 2a
2
from which anti-differentiation yields ln fˆa (w) = − w4a + K. Here, K is
an arbitrary constant of integration. Consequently
2
fˆa (w) = C e−w /(4a) , C = eK .
3 4