Bessel Function Zeros
When the index
is real, the functions
,
,
, and
each have
an infinite number of real zeros, all of which are simple with the possible exception
of
. For nonnegative
, the
th positive zeros
of these functions are denoted
,
,
, and
, respectively,
except that
is typically counted as the first
zero of
(Abramowitz and Stegun 1972,
p. 370).
The first few roots
of the Bessel
function
are given in the following table
for small nonnegative integer values of
and
. They can be found
in the Wolfram Language using the
command BesselJZero[n,
k].
| 1 | 2.4048 | 3.8317 | 5.1356 | 6.3802 | 7.5883 | 8.7715 |
| 2 | 5.5201 | 7.0156 | 8.4172 | 9.7610 | 11.0647 | 12.3386 |
| 3 | 8.6537 | 10.1735 | 11.6198 | 13.0152 | 14.3725 | 15.7002 |
| 4 | 11.7915 | 13.3237 | 14.7960 | 16.2235 | 17.6160 | 18.9801 |
| 5 | 14.9309 | 16.4706 | 17.9598 | 19.4094 | 20.8269 | 22.2178 |
The first few roots
of the
derivative of the Bessel function
are given
in the following table for small nonnegative integer values of
and
. Versions of the
Wolfram Language prior to 6 implemented
these zeros as BesselJPrimeZeros[n, k] in the BesselZeros
package which is now available for separate download (Wolfram Research). Note that
contrary to Abramowitz and Stegun (1972, p. 370), the Wolfram
Language defines the first zero of
to be approximately
3.8317 rather than zero.
| 1 | 3.8317 | 1.8412 | 3.0542 | 4.2012 | 5.3175 | 6.4156 |
| 2 | 7.0156 | 5.3314 | 6.7061 | 8.0152 | 9.2824 | 10.5199 |
| 3 | 10.1735 | 8.5363 | 9.9695 | 11.3459 | 12.6819 | 13.9872 |
| 4 | 13.3237 | 11.7060 | 13.1704 | 14.5858 | 15.9641 | 17.3128 |
| 5 | 16.4706 | 14.8636 | 16.3475 | 17.7887 | 19.1960 | 20.5755 |
Bessel functions

