In mathematics, the Lagrange reversion theorem gives series or formal power series expansions of certain implicitly defined functions; indeed, of compositions with such functions.

Let v be a function of x and y in terms of another function f such that

${\displaystyle v=x+yf(v)}$

Then for any function g, for small enough y:

${\displaystyle g(v)=g(x)+\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{\frac {y^{k}}{k!}}\left({\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}\right)^{k-1}\left(f(x)^{k}g'(x)\right).}$

If g is the identity, this becomes

${\displaystyle v=x+\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{\frac {y^{k}}{k!}}\left({\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}\right)^{k-1}\left(f(x)^{k}\right)}$

In which case the equation can be derived using perturbation theory.

In 1770, Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736–1813) published his power series solution of the implicit equation for v mentioned above. However, his solution used cumbersome series expansions of logarithms.^[1][2] In 1780, Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827) published a simpler proof of the theorem, which was based on relations between partial derivatives with respect to the variable x and the parameter y.^[3][4][5] Charles Hermite (1822–1901) presented the most straightforward proof of the theorem by using contour integration.^[6][7][8]

Lagrange's reversion theorem is used to obtain numerical solutions to Kepler's equation.

Simple proof

We start by writing:

${\displaystyle g(v)=\int \delta (yf(z)-z+x)g(z)(1-yf'(z))\,dz}$

Writing the delta-function as an integral we have:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}g(v)&=\iint \exp(ik[yf(z)-z+x])g(z)(1-yf'(z))\,{\frac {dk}{2\pi }}\,dz\\[10pt]&=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }\iint {\frac {(ikyf(z))^{n}}{n!}}g(z)(1-yf'(z))e^{ik(x-z)}\,{\frac {dk}{2\pi }}\,dz\\[10pt]&=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }\left({\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}\right)^{n}\iint {\frac {(yf(z))^{n}}{n!}}g(z)(1-yf'(z))e^{ik(x-z)}\,{\frac {dk}{2\pi }}\,dz\end{aligned}}}$

The integral over k then gives ${\displaystyle \delta (x-z)}$ and we have:

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}g(v)&=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }\left({\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}\right)^{n}\left[{\frac {(yf(x))^{n}}{n!}}g(x)(1-yf'(x))\right]\\[10pt]&=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }\left({\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}\right)^{n}\left[{\frac {y^{n}f(x)^{n}g(x)}{n!}}-{\frac {y^{n+1}}{(n+1)!}}\left\{(g(x)f(x)^{n+1})'-g'(x)f(x)^{n+1}\right\}\right]\end{aligned}}}$

Rearranging the sum and cancelling then gives the result:

${\displaystyle g(v)=g(x)+\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{\frac {y^{k}}{k!}}\left({\frac {\partial }{\partial x}}\right)^{k-1}\left(f(x)^{k}g'(x)\right)}$

References

External links

• Lagrange Inversion [Reversion] Theorem on MathWorld
• Cornish–Fisher expansion, an application of the theorem
• Article on equation of time contains an application to Kepler's equation.