Bernoulli polynomials

In mathematics, the Bernoulli polynomials, named after Jacob Bernoulli, combine the Bernoulli numbers and binomial coefficients. They are used for series expansion of functions, and with the Euler–MacLaurin formula.
These polynomials occur in the study of many special functions and, in particular, the Riemann zeta function and the Hurwitz zeta function. They are an Appell sequence. For the Bernoulli polynomials, the number of crossings of the x-axis in the unit interval does not go up with the degree. In the limit of large degree, they approach, when appropriately scaled, the sine and cosine functions.
A similar set of polynomials, based on a generating function, is the family of Euler polynomials.

Representations

The Bernoulli polynomials B_n can be defined by a generating function. They also admit a variety of derived representations.

Generating functions

The generating function for the Bernoulli polynomials is
The generating function for the Euler polynomials is

Explicit formula

for, where are the Bernoulli numbers, and are the Euler numbers. It follows that and.

Representation by a differential operator

The Bernoulli polynomials are also given by
where is differentiation with respect to and the fraction is expanded as a formal power series. It follows that
cf. below. By the same token, the Euler polynomials are given by

Representation by an integral operator

The Bernoulli polynomials are also the unique polynomials determined by
The integral transform
on polynomials f, simply amounts to
This can be used to produce the inversion formulae below.

Integral Recurrence

In, it is deduced and proved that the Bernoulli polynomials can be obtained by the following integral recurrence

Another explicit formula

An explicit formula for the Bernoulli polynomials is given by
That is similar to the series expression for the Hurwitz zeta function in the complex plane. Indeed, there is the relationship
where is the Hurwitz zeta function. The latter generalizes the Bernoulli polynomials, allowing for non-integer values
The inner sum may be understood to be the th forward difference of that is,
where is the forward difference operator. Thus, one may write
This formula may be derived from an [|identity] appearing above as follows. Since the forward difference operator equals
where is differentiation with respect to, we have, from the Mercator series,
As long as this operates on an th-degree polynomial such as one may let go from only up
An [|integral representation] for the Bernoulli polynomials is given by the Nörlund–Rice integral, which follows from the expression as a finite difference.
An explicit formula for the Euler polynomials is given by
The above follows analogously, using the fact that

Sums of ''p''th powers

Using either the above integral representation of or the identity, we have
.

Explicit expressions for low degrees

The first few Bernoulli polynomials are:
The first few Euler polynomials are:

Maximum and minimum

At higher the amount of variation in between and gets large. For instance, but showed that the maximum value of between and obeys
unless is in which case
, while the minimum obeys
unless in which case
These limits are quite close to the actual maximum and minimum, and Lehmer gives more accurate limits as well.

Differences and derivatives

The Bernoulli and Euler polynomials obey many relations from umbral calculus:
. Also,
These polynomial sequences are Appell sequences:

Translations

These identities are also equivalent to saying that these polynomial sequences are Appell sequences.

Symmetries

and Hao Pan established the following surprising symmetry relation: If and, then
where

Fourier series

The Fourier series of the Bernoulli polynomials is also a Dirichlet series, given by the expansion
Note the simple large n limit to suitably scaled trigonometric functions.
This is a special case of the analogous form for the Hurwitz zeta function
This expansion is valid only for when and is valid for when.
The Fourier series of the Euler polynomials may also be calculated. Defining the functions
for, the Euler polynomial has the Fourier series
Note that the and are odd and even, respectively:
They are related to the Legendre chi function as

Inversion

The Bernoulli and Euler polynomials may be inverted to express the monomial in terms of the polynomials.
Specifically, evidently from the above section on integral operators, it follows that
and

Relation to falling factorial

The Bernoulli polynomials may be expanded in terms of the falling factorial as
where and
denotes the Stirling number of the second kind. The above may be inverted to express the falling factorial in terms of the Bernoulli polynomials:
where
denotes the Stirling number of the first kind.

Multiplication theorems

The multiplication theorems were given by Joseph Ludwig Raabe in 1851:
For a natural number,

Integrals

Two definite integrals relating the Bernoulli and Euler polynomials to the Bernoulli and Euler numbers are:
Another integral formula states
with the special case for

Periodic Bernoulli polynomials

A periodic Bernoulli polynomial is a Bernoulli polynomial evaluated at the fractional part of the argument. These functions are used to provide the remainder term in the Euler–Maclaurin formula relating sums to integrals. The first polynomial is a sawtooth function.
Strictly these functions are not polynomials at all and more properly should be termed the periodic Bernoulli functions.
The following properties are of interest, valid for all :

is continuous for all
exists and is continuous for
for