If, for example, n = 2, the rule gives an expression for the second derivative of a product of two functions:
The formula can be generalized to the product of m differentiable functions f1,...,fm.
where the sum extends over all m-tuples (k1,...,km) of non-negative integers with and
are the multinomial coefficients. This is akin to the multinomial formula from algebra.
With the multi-index notation for partial derivatives of functions of several variables, the Leibniz rule states more generally:
This formula can be used to derive a formula that computes the symbol of the composition of differential operators. In fact, let P and Q be differential operators (with coefficients that are differentiable sufficiently many times) and Since R is also a differential operator, the symbol of R is given by:
A direct computation now gives:
- !}\left({\partial \over \partial \xi }\right)^{\alpha }P(x,\xi )\left({\partial \over \partial x}\right)^{\alpha }Q(x,\xi ).}
This formula is usually known as the Leibniz formula. It is used to define the composition in the space of symbols, thereby inducing the ring structure.