New separated polynomial solutions to the Zernike system on the unit disk and interbasis expansion.

ABSTRACT

The differential equation proposed by Frits Zernike to obtain a basis of polynomial orthogonal solutions on the unit disk to classify wavefront aberrations in circular pupils is shown to have a set of new orthonormal solution bases involving Legendre and Gegenbauer polynomials in nonorthogonal coordinates, close to Cartesian ones. We find the overlaps between the original Zernike basis and a representative of the new set, which turn out to be Clebsch-Gordan coefficients.