In mathematics, the Christoffel–Darboux formula or Christoffel–Darboux theorem is an identity for a sequence of orthogonal polynomials, introduced by Elwin Bruno Christoffel (1858) and Jean Gaston Darboux (1878).
Christoffel–Darboux formula—if a sequence of polynomials  are of degrees
 are of degrees  , and orthogonal with respect to a probability measure
, and orthogonal with respect to a probability measure  , then
, then
 
where  are the squared norms, and
 are the squared norms, and  are the leading coefficients.
 are the leading coefficients.
 
There is also a "confluent form" of this identity by taking  limit:
 limit:
Christoffel–Darboux formula, confluent form—