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If you are a teacher then please also visit my new site: intermathematics.com for over 2000+ pdf pages of resources for teaching IB maths!

The Remarkable Dirac Delta Function

This is a brief introduction to the Dirac Delta function – named after the legendary Nobel prize winning physicist Paul Dirac. Dirac was one of the founding fathers of the mathematics of quantum mechanics, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential physicists of the 20th Century.  This topic is only recommended for students confident with the idea of limits and was inspired by a Quora post by Arsh Khan.

Dirac defined the delta function as having the following 2 properties:

The first property as defined above is that the delta function is 0 for all values of t, except for t = 0, when it is infinite.

The second property defined above is that the integral of the delta function – and the area of the graph between 2 points (either side of 0) is 1.    We can take the bottom integral where we integrate from negative to positive infinity as this will be more useful later.

The delta function (technically not a function in a normal sense!) can be represented as the following limit:

Whilst this looks a little intimidating, it just means that we take the limit of the function as epsilon (ε) approaches 0.  Given this definition of the delta function we can check that the 2 properties outlined above hold.

For the first limit above we set t not equal to 0.  Then, because it is a continuous function when t is not equal to 0, we can effectively replace epsilon with 0 in the first limit above to get a limit of 0.  In the second limit when t = 0 we get a limit of infinity.  Therefore the first property holds.

To show that the second property holds, we start with the following integral identity from HL Calculus:

Hopefully this will look similar to the function we are interested in.  Let’s play a little fast and loose with the mathematics and ignore the limit of the function and just consider the following integral:

Therefore (using the fact that the graph of arctanx has horizontal asymptotes at positive and negative pi/2 for the final part) :

So we have shown above that the integral of every function of this form will have an integral of 1, regardless of the value of epsilon, thus satisfying our second property.

The use of the Dirac Function

So far so good.  But what is so remarkable about the Dirac function?  Well, it allows objects to be described in terms of a single zero width (and infinitely high) spike, but despite having zero width, this spike still has an area of 1.   This then allows the representation of elementary particles which have zero size but finite mass (and other finite properties such as charge) to be represented mathematically.  With the area under the curve = 1 it can also be thought of in terms of a probability density function – i.e representing the quantum world in terms of probability wave functions.

A graphical representation:

This is easier to understand graphically.  Say for example we choose a value epsilon (ε) and gradually make it smaller (i.e we find the limit as ε approaches 0).  When ε = 5 we have the following:

When ε = 1 we have the following:

When ε = 0.1 we have the following:

When ε = 0.01 we have the following:

You can see that as  ε approaches 0 we get a function which is close to 0 everywhere except for a spike at zero.  The total area under the function remains at 1 for all ε.

Therefore we can represent the Dirac Delta function with the above graph.  In it we have a point with zero width but with infinite height – and still with an area under the curve of 1!

Essential Resources for IB Teachers

1) Intermathematics.com

If you are a teacher then please also visit my new site.  This has been designed specifically for teachers of mathematics at international schools.  The content now includes over 2000 pages of pdf content for the entire SL and HL Analysis syllabus and also the SL Applications syllabus.  Some of the content includes:

1. Original pdf worksheets (with full worked solutions) designed to cover all the syllabus topics.  These make great homework sheets or in class worksheets – and are each designed to last between 40 minutes and 1 hour.
2. Original Paper 3 investigations (with full worked solutions) to develop investigative techniques and support both the exploration and the Paper 3 examination.
3. Over 150 pages of Coursework Guides to introduce students to the essentials behind getting an excellent mark on their exploration coursework.
4. A large number of enrichment activities such as treasure hunts, quizzes, investigations, Desmos explorations, Python coding and more – to engage IB learners in the course.

There is also a lot more.  I think this could save teachers 200+ hours of preparation time in delivering an IB maths course – so it should be well worth exploring!

Essential Resources for both IB teachers and IB students

1) Exploration Guides and Paper 3 Resources

I’ve put together a 168 page Super Exploration Guide to talk students and teachers through all aspects of producing an excellent coursework submission.  Students always make the same mistakes when doing their coursework – get the inside track from an IB moderator!  I have also made Paper 3 packs for HL Analysis and also Applications students to help prepare for their Paper 3 exams.  The Exploration Guides can be downloaded here and the Paper 3 Questions can be downloaded here.