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I would like to act with a differential operator $D_x = x \partial_x^2+3\partial_x$ on a function $g(x)$ to compute something like $$ ((D_x)^2 +D_x) g(x) $$ Clearly, in this simple example, this does the trick

dop[t_] := t  D[#, {t, 2}] + 3  D[#, t] &
dop[x][dop[x][g[x]]] + dop[x][g[x]]

However, in my case I have more derivatives and I would like to do things differently. I would like to more generally define a function $f(x) = x^2+x$ and then consider $$ f(D_x)g(x) = ((D_x)^2 +D_x) g(x) $$

How can I define this function $f(D_x)$ in Mathematica?

bnado
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1 Answers1

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We define an operator, that takes a polynomial in x and replaces every x by a derivative operator that acts on the variable x. To prevent that the operator is evaluated too early, we need "Hold":

op[der_] := 
 Evaluate[der /. x^(n_ : 1) :> Hold[D[#, {x, n}]]] & // ReleaseHold

Here is an example:

op[x + 2  x^2 + 3  x^3][x^3]

18 + 12 x + 3 x^2

Of course you may also define the operator that it take an arbitrary variable as argument to act on, but I want to keep it simple.

Addendum

If you want differential operators of the for of a polynomial like e.g. x ∂^2x, we may extend the above.

Define the operator as a function of d with coefficients depending of x:

op[der_] :=  Evaluate[der /. d^(n_ : 1) :> Hold[D[#, {x, n}]]] & // ReleaseHold;

Now if we write e.g.:

op[x d^2][x^2]

2 x

Or

op[a  d^2 + b  x  d][x^2]

2 a + 2 b x^2

Or even:

op[Sin[x]  d][x^2]

2 x Sin[x]
Daniel Huber
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