List of mathematical functions

In mathematics, some functions or groups of functions are important enough to deserve their own names. This is a listing of articles which explain some of these functions in more detail. There is a large theory of special functions which developed out of statistics and mathematical physics. A modern, abstract point of view contrasts large function spaces, which are infinite-dimensional and within which most functions are 'anonymous', with special functions picked out by properties such as symmetry, or relationship to harmonic analysis and group representations.

See also List of types of functions

Elementary functions

Elementary functions are functions built from basic operations (e.g. addition, exponentials, logarithms...)
Algebraic functions

Algebraic functions are functions that can be expressed as the solution of a polynomial equation with integer coefficients.

Polynomials: Can be generated solely by addition, multiplication, and raising to the power of a positive integer.
- Constant function: polynomial of degree zero, graph is a horizontal straight line
- Linear function: First degree polynomial, graph is a straight line.
- Quadratic function: Second degree polynomial, graph is a parabola.
- Cubic function: Third degree polynomial.
- Quartic function: Fourth degree polynomial.
- Quintic function: Fifth degree polynomial.
- Sextic function: Sixth degree polynomial.
Rational functions: A ratio of two polynomials.
nth root
- Square root: Yields a number whose square is the given one.
- Cube root: Yields a number whose cube is the given one.

Elementary transcendental functions

Transcendental functions are functions that are not algebraic.

Exponential function: raises a fixed number to a variable power.
Hyperbolic functions: formally similar to the trigonometric functions.
Logarithms: the inverses of exponential functions; useful to solve equations involving exponentials.
- Natural logarithm
- Common logarithm
- Binary logarithm
Power functions: raise a variable number to a fixed power; also known as Allometric functions; note: if the power is a rational number it is not strictly a transcendental function.
Periodic functions
- Trigonometric functions: sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant, cosecant, exsecant, excosecant, versine, coversine, vercosine, covercosine, haversine, hacoversine, havercosine, hacovercosine, etc.; used in geometry and to describe periodic phenomena. See also Gudermannian function.

Special functions
Basic special functions

Indicator function: maps x to either 1 or 0, depending on whether or not x belongs to some subset.
Step function: A finite linear combination of indicator functions of half-open intervals.
- Heaviside step function: 0 for negative arguments and 1 for positive arguments. The integral of the Dirac delta function.
Sawtooth wave
Square wave
Triangle wave
Floor function: Largest integer less than or equal to a given number.
Ceiling function: Smallest integer larger than or equal to a given number.
Sign function: Returns only the sign of a number, as +1 or −1.
Absolute value: distance to the origin (zero point)

Number theoretic functions

Sigma function: Sums of powers of divisors of a given natural number.
Euler's totient function: Number of numbers coprime to (and not bigger than) a given one.
Prime-counting function: Number of primes less than or equal to a given number.
Partition function: Order-independent count of ways to write a given positive integer as a sum of positive integers.
Möbius μ function: Sum of the nth primitive roots of unity, it depends on the prime factorization of n.

Antiderivatives of elementary functions

Logarithmic integral function: Integral of the reciprocal of the logarithm, important in the prime number theorem.
Exponential integral
Trigonometric integral: Including Sine Integral and Cosine Integral
Error function: An integral important for normal random variables.
- Fresnel integral: related to the error function; used in optics.
- Dawson function: occurs in probability.
- Faddeeva function

Gamma and related functions

Gamma function: A generalization of the factorial function.
Barnes G-function
Beta function: Corresponding binomial coefficient analogue.
Digamma function, Polygamma function
Incomplete beta function
Incomplete gamma function
K-function
Multivariate gamma function: A generalization of the Gamma function useful in multivariate statistics.
Student's t-distribution
Pi function ∏(z)= z*Γ(z)= (z)!

Elliptic and related functions

Elliptic integrals: Arising from the path length of ellipses; important in many applications. Related functions are the quarter period and the nome. Alternate notations include:
- Carlson symmetric form
- Legendre form
Elliptic functions: The inverses of elliptic integrals; used to model double-periodic phenomena. Particular types are Weierstrass's elliptic functions and Jacobi's elliptic functions and the sine lemniscate and cosine lemniscate functions.
Theta function
Closely related are the modular forms, which include
- J-invariant
- Dedekind eta function

Bessel and related functions

Airy function
Bessel functions: Defined by a differential equation; useful in astronomy, electromagnetism, and mechanics.
Bessel–Clifford function
Kelvin functions
Legendre function: From the theory of spherical harmonics.
Scorer's function
Sinc function
Hermite polynomials
Laguerre polynomials
Chebyshev polynomials

Riemann zeta and related functions

Riemann zeta function: A special case of Dirichlet series.
Riemann Xi function
Dirichlet eta function: An allied function.
Dirichlet beta function
Dirichlet L-function
Hurwitz zeta function
Legendre chi function
Lerch transcendent
Polylogarithm and related functions:
- Incomplete polylogarithm
- Clausen function
- Complete Fermi–Dirac integral, an alternate form of the polylogarithm.
- Incomplete Fermi–Dirac integral
- Kummer's function
- Spence's function
Riesz function

Hypergeometric and related functions

Hypergeometric functions: Versatile family of power series.
Confluent hypergeometric function
Associated Legendre functions
Meijer G-function

Iterated exponential and related functions

Hyper operators
Iterated logarithm
Pentation
Super-logarithms
Super-roots
Tetration
Lambert W function: Inverse of f(w) = w exp(w).

Other standard special functions

Dirichlet lambda function, λ(s) = (1 – 2^−s)ζ(s) where ζ is the Riemann zeta function
Liouville function, λ(n) = (–1)^Ω(n)
Von Mangoldt function, Λ(n) = log p if n is a positive power of the prime p
Modular lambda function, λ(τ), a highly symmetric holomorphic function on the complex upper half-plane
Lamé function
Mathieu function
Mittag-Leffler function
Painlevé transcendents
Parabolic cylinder function
Synchrotron function
Arithmetic–geometric mean

Miscellaneous functions

Ackermann function: in the theory of computation, a computable function that is not primitive recursive.
Böttcher's function
Dirac delta function: everywhere zero except for x = 0; total integral is 1. Not a function but a distribution, but sometimes informally referred to as a function, particularly by physicists and engineers.
Dirichlet function: is an indicator function that matches 1 to rational numbers and 0 to irrationals. It is nowhere continuous.
Thomae's function: is a function that is continuous at all irrational numbers and discontinuous at all rational numbers. It is also a modification of Dirichlet function and sometimes called Riemann function.
Kronecker delta function: is a function of two variables, usually integers, which is 1 if they are equal, and 0 otherwise.
Minkowski's question mark function: Derivatives vanish on the rationals.
Weierstrass function: is an example of continuous function that is nowhere differentiable