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Concept
Dirac delta function
Summary
In mathematical physics, the Dirac delta distribution (δ distribution), also known as the unit impulse, is a generalized function or distribution over the real numbers, whose value is zero everywhere except at zero, and whose integral over the entire real line is equal to one.
The current understanding of the unit impulse is as a linear functional that maps every continuous function (e.g., ) to its value at zero of its domain (), or as the weak limit of a sequence of bump functions (e.g., ), which are zero over most of the real line, with a tall spike at the origin. Bump functions are thus sometimes called "approximate" or "nascent" delta distributions.
The delta function was introduced by physicist Paul Dirac as a tool for the normalization of state vectors. It also has uses in probability theory and signal processing. Its validity was disputed until Laurent Schwartz developed the theory of distributions where it is defined as a linear form acting on functions.
The Kronecker delta function, which is usually defined on a discrete domain and takes values 0 and 1, is the discrete analog of the Dirac delta function.
The graph of the Dirac delta is usually thought of as following the whole x-axis and the positive y-axis. The Dirac delta is used to model a tall narrow spike function (an impulse), and other similar abstractions such as a point charge, point mass or electron point. For example, to calculate the dynamics of a billiard ball being struck, one can approximate the force of the impact by a Dirac delta. In doing so, one not only simplifies the equations, but one also is able to calculate the motion of the ball by only considering the total impulse of the collision without a detailed model of all of the elastic energy transfer at subatomic levels (for instance).
To be specific, suppose that a billiard ball is at rest. At time it is struck by another ball, imparting it with a momentum P, with units kg⋅m⋅s−1.
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