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In green, confocal parabolae opening upwards, $2y={\frac {x^{2}}{\sigma ^{2}}}-\sigma ^{2}$ In red, confocal parabolae opening downwards, $2y=-{\frac {x^{2}}{\tau ^{2}}}+\tau ^{2}$

Parabolic coordinates are a two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system in which the coordinate lines are confocal parabolas. A three-dimensional version of parabolic coordinates is obtained by rotating the two-dimensional system about the symmetry axis of the parabolas.

Parabolic coordinates have found many applications, e.g., the treatment of the Stark effect and the potential theory of the edges.

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 Two-dimensional parabolic coordinates

Two-dimensional parabolic coordinates $(\sigma ,\tau )$ are defined by the equations, in terms of Cartesian coordinates:

$x=\sigma \tau$

$y={\frac {1}{2}}\left(\tau ^{2}-\sigma ^{2}\right)$

The curves of constant $\sigma$ form confocal parabolae

$2y={\frac {x^{2}}{\sigma ^{2}}}-\sigma ^{2}$

that open upwards (i.e., towards $+y$), whereas the curves of constant $\tau$ form confocal parabolae

$2y=-{\frac {x^{2}}{\tau ^{2}}}+\tau ^{2}$

that open downwards (i.e., towards $-y$). The foci of all these parabolae are located at the origin.

The Cartesian coordinates $x$ and $y$ can be converted to parabolic coordinates by:

$\sigma =\operatorname {sign} (x){\sqrt {{\sqrt {x^{2}+y^{2}}}-y}}$

$\tau ={\sqrt {{\sqrt {x^{2}+y^{2}}}+y}}$

 Two-dimensional scale factors

The scale factors for the parabolic coordinates $(\sigma ,\tau )$ are equal

$h_{\sigma }=h_{\tau }={\sqrt {\sigma ^{2}+\tau ^{2}}}$

Hence, the infinitesimal element of area is

$dA=\left(\sigma ^{2}+\tau ^{2}\right)d\sigma d\tau$

and the Laplacian equals

$\nabla ^{2}\Phi ={\frac {1}{\sigma ^{2}+\tau ^{2}}}\left({\frac {\partial ^{2}\Phi }{\partial \sigma ^{2}}}+{\frac {\partial ^{2}\Phi }{\partial \tau ^{2}}}\right)$

Other differential operators such as $\nabla \cdot \mathbf {F}$ and $\nabla \times \mathbf {F}$ can be expressed in the coordinates $(\sigma ,\tau )$ by substituting the scale factors into the general formulae found in orthogonal coordinates.

 Three-dimensional parabolic coordinates

Coordinate surfaces of the three-dimensional parabolic coordinates. The red paraboloid corresponds to τ=2, the blue paraboloid corresponds to σ=1, and the yellow half-plane corresponds to φ=-60°. The three surfaces intersect at the point P (shown as a black sphere) with Cartesian coordinates roughly (1.0, -1.732, 1.5).

The two-dimensional parabolic coordinates form the basis for two sets of three-dimensional orthogonal coordinates. The parabolic cylindrical coordinates are produced by projecting in the $z$-direction. Rotation about the symmetry axis of the parabolae produces a set of confocal paraboloids, the coordinate system of tridimensional parabolic coordinates. Expressed in terms of cartesian coordinates:

$x=\sigma \tau \cos \varphi$

$y=\sigma \tau \sin \varphi$

$z={\frac {1}{2}}\left(\tau ^{2}-\sigma ^{2}\right)$

where the parabolae are now aligned with the $z$-axis, about which the rotation was carried out. Hence, the azimuthal angle $\phi$ is defined

$\tan \varphi ={\frac {y}{x}}$

The surfaces of constant $\sigma$ form confocal paraboloids

$2z={\frac {x^{2}+y^{2}}{\sigma ^{2}}}-\sigma ^{2}$

that open upwards (i.e., towards $+z$) whereas the surfaces of constant $\tau$ form confocal paraboloids

$2z=-{\frac {x^{2}+y^{2}}{\tau ^{2}}}+\tau ^{2}$

that open downwards (i.e., towards $-z$). The foci of all these paraboloids are located at the origin.

The Riemannian metric tensor associated with this coordinate system is

$g_{ij}={\begin{bmatrix}\sigma ^{2}+\tau ^{2}&0&0\\0&\sigma ^{2}+\tau ^{2}&0\\0&0&\sigma ^{2}\tau ^{2}\end{bmatrix}}$

 Three-dimensional scale factors

The three dimensional scale factors are:

$h_{\sigma }={\sqrt {\sigma ^{2}+\tau ^{2}}}$

$h_{\tau }={\sqrt {\sigma ^{2}+\tau ^{2}}}$

$h_{\varphi }=\sigma \tau$

It is seen that the scale factors $h_{\sigma }$ and $h_{\tau }$ are the same as in the two-dimensional case. The infinitesimal volume element is then

$dV=h_{\sigma }h_{\tau }h_{\varphi }\,d\sigma \,d\tau \,d\varphi =\sigma \tau \left(\sigma ^{2}+\tau ^{2}\right)\,d\sigma \,d\tau \,d\varphi$

and the Laplacian is given by

$\nabla ^{2}\Phi ={\frac {1}{\sigma ^{2}+\tau ^{2}}}\left[{\frac {1}{\sigma }}{\frac {\partial }{\partial \sigma }}\left(\sigma {\frac {\partial \Phi }{\partial \sigma }}\right)+{\frac {1}{\tau }}{\frac {\partial }{\partial \tau }}\left(\tau {\frac {\partial \Phi }{\partial \tau }}\right)\right]+{\frac {1}{\sigma ^{2}\tau ^{2}}}{\frac {\partial ^{2}\Phi }{\partial \varphi ^{2}}}$

Other differential operators such as $\nabla \cdot \mathbf {F}$ and $\nabla \times \mathbf {F}$ can be expressed in the coordinates $(\sigma ,\tau ,\phi )$ by substituting the scale factors into the general formulae found in orthogonal coordinates.

 See also

• Parabolic cylindrical coordinates
• Orthogonal coordinate system
• Curvilinear coordinates

 Bibliography

• Morse PM, Feshbach H (1953). Methods of Theoretical Physics, Part I. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 660. ISBN 0-07-043316-X. LCCN 52011515.
• Margenau H, Murphy GM (1956). The Mathematics of Physics and Chemistry. New York: D. van Nostrand. pp. 185–186. LCCN 55010911.
• Korn GA, Korn TM (1961). Mathematical Handbook for Scientists and Engineers. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 180. LCCN 59014456. ASIN B0000CKZX7.
• Sauer R, Szabó I (1967). Mathematische Hilfsmittel des Ingenieurs. New York: Springer Verlag. p. 96. LCCN 67025285.
• Zwillinger D (1992). Handbook of Integration. Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett. p. 114. ISBN 0-86720-293-9. Same as Morse & Feshbach (1953), substituting u_k for ξ_k.
• Moon P, Spencer DE (1988). "Parabolic Coordinates (μ, ν, ψ)". Field Theory Handbook, Including Coordinate Systems, Differential Equations, and Their Solutions (corrected 2nd ed., 3rd print ed.). New York: Springer-Verlag. pp. 34–36 (Table 1.08). ISBN 978-0-387-18430-2.

 External links

• Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001), "Parabolic coordinates", Encyclopaedia of Mathematics, Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 978-1556080104 
• MathWorld description of parabolic coordinates