Code for Hermite polynomials (along with about 15 other orthogonal
polynomials) is in the specfun package. I contributed this package in
mid-April, so unless your maxima
is very recent, you won't have it. You can download specfun.mc from the
maxima CVS at
http://cvs.ma.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/maxima/share/?cvsroot=maxima
Copy specfun.mc to the maxima share directory. For best performance, compile specfun.
To use it, try
(C4) load("specfun")$
(C5) display2d : false$
(C6) makelist(hermite(i,x),i,0,3);
(D6) [1,2*x,-2*(1-2*x^2),-12*x*(1-2*x^2/3)]
Let me know if you have any problems.
Since contributing specfun, I've made a few improvements to it (improved
the gradef
statements and sped up the spherical harmonic function). I'll send the
newest version to anybody that wants it (it's small -- about 20K). My
package also has two demonstration programs -- variational method in
quantum mechanics and a first order degenerate pertubational calculation
for the Stark effect.
Regards,
Barton Willis
University of Nebraska at Kearney