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NAG Toolbox: nag_specfun_airy_ai_real (s17ag)

 Contents

    1  Purpose
    2  Syntax
    7  Accuracy
    9  Example

Purpose

nag_specfun_airy_ai_real (s17ag) returns a value for the Airy function, Aix, via the function name.

Syntax

[result, ifail] = s17ag(x)
[result, ifail] = nag_specfun_airy_ai_real(x)

Description

nag_specfun_airy_ai_real (s17ag) evaluates an approximation to the Airy function, Aix. It is based on a number of Chebyshev expansions:
For x<-5,
Aix=atsinz-btcosz-x1/4  
where z= π4+ 23-x3, and at and bt are expansions in the variable t=-2 5x 3-1.
For -5x0,
Aix=ft-xgt,  
where f and g are expansions in t=-2 x5 3-1.
For 0<x<4.5,
Aix=e-3x/2yt,  
where y is an expansion in t=4x/9-1.
For 4.5x<9,
Aix=e-5x/2ut,  
where u is an expansion in t=4x/9-3.
For x9,
Aix=e-zvtx1/4,  
where z= 23x3 and v is an expansion in t=2 18z-1.
For x<machine precision, the result is set directly to Ai0. This both saves time and guards against underflow in intermediate calculations.
For large negative arguments, it becomes impossible to calculate the phase of the oscillatory function with any precision and so the function must fail. This occurs if x<- 32ε 2/3 , where ε is the machine precision.
For large positive arguments, where Ai decays in an essentially exponential manner, there is a danger of underflow so the function must fail.

References

Abramowitz M and Stegun I A (1972) Handbook of Mathematical Functions (3rd Edition) Dover Publications

Parameters

Compulsory Input Parameters

1:     x – double scalar
The argument x of the function.

Optional Input Parameters

None.

Output Parameters

1:     result – double scalar
The result of the function.
2:     ifail int64int32nag_int scalar
ifail=0 unless the function detects an error (see Error Indicators and Warnings).

Error Indicators and Warnings

Errors or warnings detected by the function:
   ifail=1
x is too large and positive. On soft failure, the function returns zero.
   ifail=2
x is too large and negative. On soft failure, the function returns zero.
   ifail=-99
An unexpected error has been triggered by this routine. Please contact NAG.
   ifail=-399
Your licence key may have expired or may not have been installed correctly.
   ifail=-999
Dynamic memory allocation failed.

Accuracy

For negative arguments the function is oscillatory and hence absolute error is the appropriate measure. In the positive region the function is essentially exponential-like and here relative error is appropriate. The absolute error, E, and the relative error, ε, are related in principle to the relative error in the argument, δ, by
E x Aix δ, ε x Aix Aix δ.  
In practice, approximate equality is the best that can be expected. When δ, ε or E is of the order of the machine precision, the errors in the result will be somewhat larger.
For small x, errors are strongly damped by the function and hence will be bounded by the machine precision.
For moderate negative x, the error behaviour is oscillatory but the amplitude of the error grows like
amplitude Eδ x5/4π.  
However the phase error will be growing roughly like 23x3 and hence all accuracy will be lost for large negative arguments due to the impossibility of calculating sin and cos to any accuracy if 23x3> 1δ .
For large positive arguments, the relative error amplification is considerable:
ε δ x3.  
This means a loss of roughly two decimal places accuracy for arguments in the region of 20. However very large arguments are not possible due to the danger of setting underflow and so the errors are limited in practice.

Further Comments

None.

Example

This example reads values of the argument x from a file, evaluates the function at each value of x and prints the results.
function s17ag_example


fprintf('s17ag example results\n\n');

x = [-10   -1    0    1    5   10   20];
n = size(x,2);
result = x;

for j=1:n
  [result(j), ifail] = s17ag(x(j));
end

disp('      x         Ai_0(x)');
fprintf('%12.3e%12.3e\n',[x; result]);

s17ag_plot;



function s17ag_plot
  x = [-25:0.25:10];
  for j = 1:numel(x)
    [Ai(j), ifail] = s17ag(x(j));
  end

  fig1 = figure;
  plot(x,Ai,'-r');
  xlabel('x');
  ylabel('Ai(x)');
  title('Airy Function Ai(x)');
  axis([-25 10 -0.5 0.6]);

s17ag example results

      x         Ai_0(x)
  -1.000e+01   4.024e-02
  -1.000e+00   5.356e-01
   0.000e+00   3.550e-01
   1.000e+00   1.353e-01
   5.000e+00   1.083e-04
   1.000e+01   1.105e-10
   2.000e+01   1.692e-27
s17ag_fig1.png

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Chapter Introduction
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