A Derivation of Classical Orthogonal Polynomials using Generalized Vandermonde Determinants

Abstract

We present a derivation of classical Hermite, Laguerre, and Jacobi orthogonal polynomials directly through the Gram-Schmidt orthogonization process. The derivation uses certain generalized Vandermonde determinants with entries defined by Gamma and Beta functions. We also provide a geometric formulation of Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization using the Hodge star operator.