CONVENTIONS FOR VECTOR SPHERICAL HARMONICS

I. HILL CONVENTION

As a starting point, we take the Hill convention [1] for the calculation of vector spherical
harmonics. Hill defines {Vlm , Xlm , Wlm } with the spherical harmonics used by Mathemat-
ica. The formulas are long but very explicit and thus easy to use in calculation. µ

II. ARFKEN CONVENTION

The convention used by Arfken YLLM [2] is - for our purposes - directly equivalent to the
Hill formulation as XLM = YLLM , VLM = YL,L+1,M and WLM = YL,L−1,M . The molecular
T-matrix calculations are done in this basis [3].

III. BARRERA CONVENTION

Barrera defines {Ψlm , Φlm , Vlm } [4]. Converting from the Hill convention to the Barrera
convention is done via
√ √
l+1 l
Ψlm = l Vlm + (l + 1) Wlm .
2l + 1 2l + 1
Making use of the properties given by Hill and the definition used by Barrera we further
find
√ √
l+1 l √
Φlm = er × Ψlm = l er × Vlm + (l + 1) er × Wlm = i l(l + 1)Xlm .
2l + 1 2l + 1

IV. TSANG / MORSE-FESHBACH CONVENTION

The Tsang convention [5] is similar to the Barrera convention with

√
(2) 4π(n + m)!
Vmn = Ψnm
(2n + 1)(n − m)!
and √
4π(n + m)!
(3)
Vmn =− Φnm
(2n + 1)(n − m)!
. Despite very similar definitions, factors arise due to the differently normalised spherical
harmonics. Please do pay attention to the switch in index occurring in this step!

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V. DOICU CONVENTION

Doicu uses a different definition for the Legendre polynomials and applies a further nor-
malisation to them [6]. The coefficients for this are defined as
√
2n + 1 (n − m)!
cmn =
2 (n + m)!

so that
Pnm ′ (cos θ) = (−1)m cmn Pnm (cos θ).

Primed quantities are the ones defined by Doicu. Due to the usage of absolute values of m
in the Doicu convention, we need to distinguish two cases.

A. m>0

Doicu’s definition here is

1
mmn = √ (imπnm ′ eθ − τnm ′ eϕ )eimϕ
2n(n + 1)
1 P m ′ (cos θ) dP m ′ (cos θ)
=√ (im n eθ − n eϕ )eimϕ
2n(n + 1) sin θ dθ
(−1)m cmn P m (cos θ) dP m (cos θ)
=√ (im n eθ − n eϕ )eimϕ
2n(n + 1) sin θ dθ
(−1)m cmn (3)
=√ Vmn .
2n(n + 1)

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 B. m<0

Taking into account the absolutes used in the definition, for negative m Doicu’s definition
is:

1
mmn = √ (imπn−m ′ eθ − τn−m ′ eϕ )eimϕ
2n(n + 1)
1 P −m ′ (cos θ) dP −m ′ (cos θ)
=√ (im n eθ − n eϕ )eimϕ
2n(n + 1) sin θ dθ
(−1)m c−m,n Pn−m (cos θ) dPn−m (cos θ)
= √ (im eθ − eϕ )eimϕ
2n(n + 1) sin θ dθ
c−m,n (n − m)! m
P (cos θ) dP m (cos θ)
=√ (im n eθ − n eϕ )eimϕ
2n(n + 1) (n + m)! sin θ dθ
c−m,n (n − m)! (3)
=√ Vmn
2n(n + 1) (n + m)!

For convenience and to avoid cases in every further step, we define




√ (−1)m cmn
,m ≥ 0
2n(n+1)
gmn = ,


√
c−m,n (n−m)!
(n+m)!
,m < 0
2n(n+1)

which means that

(3)
mmn = gmn Vmn

VI. FRUHNERT CONVENTION

The Fruhnert convention is simply −i ∗ Xnm .

VII. HILL-DOICU BASIS CHANGE

Finally, we want to perform a basis change between two different conventions for multipole
expansions, namely between the one used by Fernandez-Corbaton in [3] and the one used by
Doicu in [6]. Again, where an ambiguity in notation occurs, Doicu’s definitions are primed.

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Fernandez-Corbaton defines the first multipolar field to be:

M1jm = jj (kr)Xjm
jj (kr)
= √ Φjm
i j(j + 1)
√
jj (kr) (2j + 1)(j − m)! (3)
=− √ Vmj
i j(j + 1) 4π(j + m)!
√
jj (kr) (2j + 1)(j − m)!
=− √ mmj
igmj j(j + 1) 4π(j + m)!
√
1 (2j + 1)(j − m)! 1′
=− √ Mmj
igmj j(j + 1) 4π(j + m)!

With that, a conversion rule between the two conventions is given. Further, the second set
of multipolar fields then reads
√
∇ × M1jm 1 (2j + 1)(j − m)! 1′
N1jm = =− √ Nmj
k igmj j(j + 1) 4π(j + m)!

[1] E. Hill, American Journal of Physics 22, 211 (1954).

[2] G. B. Arfken, H.-J. Weber, and F. E. Harris, Mathematical Methods for Physicists: A Com-
prehensive Guide (Academic Press, 2013).
[3] I. Fernandez-Corbaton, C. Rockstuhl, and W. Klopper, arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.08085 (2018).
[4] R. G. Barrera, G. Estevez, and J. Giraldo, European Journal of Physics 6, 287 (1985).
[5] L. Tsang, J. A. Kong, and K.-H. Ding, Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves: Theories and
Applications, vol. 27 (John Wiley & Sons, 2004).
[6] A. Doicu, T. Wriedt, and Y. A. Eremin, Light scattering by systems of particles: null-field
method with discrete sources: theory and programs, vol. 124 (Springer, 2006).