A Logarithmic Spiral in the Complex Plane Interpolating Between the Exponential and the Circular Functions
A logarithmic spiral in the complex plane interpolating between the exponential and the circular functions Alessandro Fonda Dipartimento di Matematica e Geoscienze, Universit`adegli Studi di Trieste P.le Europa 1, I-34127 Trieste, Italy Abstract. We propose a unified construction of the real exponential function and the trigonometric functions. To this aim, we prove the existence of a unique curve in the complex plane starting at time 0 from 1 and arriving after some time τ at a point ζ, lying in the first quadrant, with the homomorphism property f(x1 + x2) = f(x1)f(x2). 1 Introduction and statement of the result The aim of this paper is to provide a unified construction of the exponential and the trigonometric functions, by the use of rather elementary arguments in the complex plane. In doing this, we are faced with a result which seems to be rather new in literature. Here it is. Theorem 1 Let ζ be a nonzero complex number, with <ζ ≥ 0 and =ζ ≥ 0, and let τ be a positive real number. There exists a unique continuous function f : R ! C n f0g with the following properties: (a) f(0) = 1, f(τ) = ζ; (b) f(x1 + x2) = f(x1)f(x2) ; for every x1; x2 2 R; (c) <f(x) > 0 and =f(x) ≥ 0, for every x 2 ]0; τ[ . It is worth to emphasize two special cases. When ζ is a positive real number, say ζ = a > 0, and τ = 1, then f will be the real exponential function f(x) = ax : 1 3 2 1 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 -1 -2 -3 Figure 1: The image and the graph of the function f On the other hand, when ζ is not real and jζj = 1, we will obtain a circular function with minimal period τ T = 2π : Arg(ζ) For example, if ζ = i and τ = π=2, we will get f(x) = cos x + i sin x : Our attention here, if not on the theorem itself, is focused on the con- struction of the function f, which permits to define the exponential and the trigonometric functions with a unified approach.
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