Angular Spheroidal Functions as a Function of Spheroidicity
This Demonstration shows how the angular spheroidal functions, , vary over the interval . For comparison we also show the corresponding Legendre functions, , to which the spheroidal ones reduce when . The controls allow to be varied: for (real ) we have the so-called prolate functions, while for (imaginary ) we have the oblate functions.
Snapshot 1: in the prolate limit (where the spheroid becomes an infinite cylinder), the angular spheroidal functions become more concentrated around the origin (), and less concentrated around the edges ()
Snapshot 2: the reverse holds in the oblate limit , in which the spheroid becomes a flat disk
Snapshot 3: in the oblate limit, both even and odd functions vanish at ; the even functions tend to the same form as the next higher odd function, with a sign change on one half of the interval (compare this picture, for , with Snapshot 2, where )
![[Snapshot]](HTMLImages/index.en/thumbnail_1.gif)
![[Snapshot]](HTMLImages/index.en/thumbnail_2.gif)
![[Snapshot]](HTMLImages/index.en/thumbnail_3.gif)
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