Multiplication of distributions in any dimension: Applications to \(\delta \)-function and its derivatives (Q2473846)

The theory of distributions is considered an essential progress in the theory of partial differential equations as well as in mathematical physics and has many applications. However, in some important cases the theory of distributions fails, such as in the calculation of \(\delta ^2\), the square of the Dirac delta function. There is no reasonable way of introducing the square \(\delta ^2\) and it is interesting that the symbol \(\delta ^2\) often appears in quantum mechanics. For example, in the literature there are several definitions just for \(\delta^2 (x)\) and several different results have been proposed such as \(\delta^2 (x) = 0\), \(c Pfx^{-2}\), \( c\delta(x)\), \(c\delta(x) +\frac{1}{2\pi}\). The author studies some particular examples that are used in engineering applications in the analysis of structures, and proposes a different definition of multiplication of distributions. It is also proved that the new definition can be easily extended to any spatial dimension. In particular the author provides an example that under the new definition the multiplication of delta functions and their derivatives exists.