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The delta function was introduced by physicist Paul Dirac, and has since been applied routinely in physics and engineering to model point masses and instantaneous impulses. It is called the delta function because it is a continuous analogue of the Kronecker delta function, which is usually defined on a discrete domain and takes values 0 and 1.
In mathematics, Fourier analysis (/ ˈ f ʊr i eɪ,-i ər /) [1] is the study of the way general functions may be represented or approximated by sums of simpler trigonometric functions. Fourier analysis grew from the study of Fourier series, and is named after Joseph Fourier, who showed that representing a function as a sum of trigonometric ...
A solution to the one-dimensional Fokker–Planck equation, with both the drift and the diffusion term. In this case the initial condition is a Dirac delta function centered away from zero velocity. Over time the distribution widens due to random impulses.
The theorems proving that a Fourier series is a valid representation of any periodic function (that satisfies the Dirichlet conditions), and informal variations of them that don't specify the convergence conditions, are sometimes referred to generically as Fourier's theorem or the Fourier theorem. [40] [41] [42] [43]
Left: A continuous function (top) and its Fourier transform (bottom). Center-left: Periodic summation of the original function (top). Fourier transform (bottom) is zero except at discrete points. The inverse transform is a sum of sinusoids called Fourier series. Center-right: Original function is discretized (multiplied by a Dirac comb) (top).
Many familiar distributions can be written as oscillatory integrals. The Fourier inversion theorem implies that the delta function, () is equal to ().If we apply the first method of defining this oscillatory integral from above, as well as the Fourier transform of the Gaussian, we obtain a well known sequence of functions which approximate the delta function:
The convolution of D n (x) with any function f of period 2 π is the nth-degree Fourier series approximation to f, i.e., we have () = () = = ^ (), where ^ = is the k th Fourier coefficient of f. This implies that in order to study convergence of Fourier series it is enough to study properties of the Dirichlet kernel.
If a system initially rests at its equilibrium position, from where it is acted upon by a unit-impulse at the instance t=0, i.e., p(t) in the equation above is a Dirac delta function δ(t), () = | = =, then by solving the differential equation one can get a fundamental solution (known as a unit-impulse response function)