# How can I make Mathematica compute an operator?

I would like Mathematica to write down the Laplace-Beltrami operator in $R^N$ $$\Delta f = \frac{\partial^2 f}{\partial r^2} + \frac{N-1}{r} \frac{\partial f}{\partial r} + \frac{1}{r^2} \delta f,$$ $$\delta = \sum\limits_{j = 1}^{N - 1} {\frac{1} {{q_j \left( {\sin \theta _j } \right)^{N - j - 1} }}\frac{\partial } {{\partial \theta _j }}\left( {\left( {\sin \theta _j } \right)^{N - j - 1} \frac{\partial } {{\partial \theta _j }}} \right)} ,$$ $$\begin{array}{*{20}c} {q_1 = 1,} & {q_j = \left( {\sin \theta _1 \sin \theta _2 \cdots \sin \theta _{j - 1} } \right)^2 ,} & {j = 2, \ldots ,N - 1} \\ \end{array}$$ as a function of $N$, i.e. I want to specify $N$ and compute the symbolic sum of $\delta$. I tried with

q[1] := 1

q[j_] := (Product[Sin[Subscript[θ, i]], {i, 1, j - 1}])^2

δ[N_] :=
Sum[1/(q[j] (Sin[Subscript[θ, j]])^(N - j - 1)) \!$$\*SubscriptBox[\(∂$$,
SubscriptBox[$$θ$$, $$j$$]]$$( \*SuperscriptBox[\((Sin[ \*SubscriptBox[\(θ$$, $$j$$]])\), $$N - j - 1$$]\
\*SubscriptBox[$$∂$$,
SubscriptBox[$$θ$$, $$j$$]])\)\), {j, 1, N - 1} ]


but it does not work:

Syntax::sntxi: Incomplete expression; more input is needed.

Anyone has any idea?

Thanks

• Please do not post code as LaTeX. Post it in a way that it can be copied and pasted back to Mathematica. – Szabolcs Aug 25 '16 at 15:14
• Note that you cannot use N, it's a built-in. – Marius Ladegård Meyer Aug 25 '16 at 15:21
• Also, see this, and this. – QuantumDot Aug 25 '16 at 15:23
• I will recommend checking prior MSE posts related to this topic. Among other things, Product is not going to be useful because it assumes commuting factors. – Daniel Lichtblau Aug 25 '16 at 15:42
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\[Delta][N_] :=