In mathematics, a confluent hypergeometric function is a solution of a confluent hypergeometric equation, which is a degenerate form of a hypergeometric differential equation where two of the three regular singularities merge into an irregular singularity. (The term "confluent" refers to the merging of singular points of families of differential equations; "confluere" is Latin for "to flow together".) There are several common standard forms of confluent hypergeometric functions:
Contents
- Kummers equation
- Other equations
- Integral representations
- Asymptotic behavior
- Relations
- Contiguous relations
- Kummers transformation
- Multiplication theorem
- Connection with Laguerre polynomials and similar representations
- Special cases
- Application to continued fractions
- References
Kummer's equation
Kummer's equation may be written as:
with a regular singular point at
Kummer's function (of the first kind) M is a generalized hypergeometric series introduced in (Kummer 1837), given by:
where:
is the rising factorial. Another common notation for this solution is Φ(a, b, z). Considered as a function of a, b, or z with the other two held constant, this defines an entire function of a or z, except when b = 0, −1, −2, ... As a function of b it is analytic except for poles at the non-positive integers.
Some values of a and b yield solutions that can be expressed in terms of other known functions. See #Special cases. When a is a non-positive integer then Kummer's function (if it is defined) is a (generalized) Laguerre polynomial.
Just as the confluent differential equation is a limit of the hypergeometric differential equation as the singular point at 1 is moved towards the singular point at ∞, the confluent hypergeometric function can be given as a limit of the hypergeometric function
and many of the properties of the confluent hypergeometric function are limiting cases of properties of the hypergeometric function.
Since Kummer's equation is second order there must be another, independent, solution. The indicial equation of the method of Frobenius tells us that the lowest power of a power series solution to the Kummer equation is either 0 or 1 − b. If we let w(z) be
then the differential equation gives
which, upon dividing out
This means that
Although this expression is undefined for integer b, it has the advantage that it can be extended to any integer b by continuity. Unlike Kummer's function which is an entire function of z, U(z) usually has a singularity at zero. For example, if b=0 and a≠0 then
Note that the solution
For most combinations of real (or complex) a and b, the functions
When a = 0 we can alternatively use:
When
A similar problem occurs when a−b is a negative integer and b is an integer less than 1. In this case
Other equations
Confluent Hypergeometric Functions can be used to solve the Extended Confluent Hypergeometric Equation whose general form is given as:
{NB that for M=0 (or when the summation involves just one term), it reduces to the conventional Confluent Hypergeometric Equation}
Thus Confluent Hypergeometric Functions can be used to solve "most" second-order ordinary differential equations whose variable coefficients are all linear functions of z; because they can be transformed to the Extended Confluent Hypergeometric Equation. Consider the equation:
First we move the regular singular point to 0 by using the substitution of A + Bz ↦ z which converts the equation to:
with new values of C, D, E, and F. Next we use the substitution:
and multiply the equation by the same factor, obtaining:
whose solution is
where w(z) is a solution to Kummer's equation with
Note that the square root may give an imaginary (or complex) number. If it is zero, another solution must be used, namely
where w(z) is a confluent hypergeometric limit function satisfying
As noted lower down, even the Bessel equation can be solved using confluent hypergeometric functions.
Integral representations
If Re b > Re a > 0, M(a, b, z) can be represented as an integral
thus
The integral defines a solution in the right half-plane Re z > 0.
They can also be represented as Barnes integrals
where the contour passes to one side of the poles of Γ(−s) and to the other side of the poles of Γ(a + s).
Asymptotic behavior
If a solution to Kummer's equation is asymptotic to a power of z as z → ∞, then the power must be −a. This is in fact the case for Tricomi's solution U(a, b, z). Its asymptotic behavior as z → ∞ can be deduced from the integral representations. If z = x ∈ R, then making a change of variables in the integral followed by expanding the binomial series and integrating it formally term by term gives rise to an asymptotic series expansion, valid as x → ∞:
where
The asymptotic behavior of Kummer's solution for large |z| is:
The powers of z are taken using
There is always some solution to Kummer's equation asymptotic to
Relations
There are many relations between Kummer functions for various arguments and their derivatives. This section gives a few typical examples.
Contiguous relations
Given M(a, b, z), the four functions M(a ± 1, b, z), M(a, b ± 1, z) are called contiguous to M(a, b, z). The function M(a, b, z) can be written as a linear combination of any two of its contiguous functions, with rational coefficients in terms of a, b, and z. This gives (4
2)=6 relations, given by identifying any two lines on the right hand side of
In the notation above, M = M(a, b, z), M(a+) = M(a + 1, b, z), and so on.
Repeatedly applying these relations gives a linear relation between any three functions of the form M(a + m, b + n, z) (and their higher derivatives), where m, n are integers.
There are similar relations for U.
Kummer's transformation
Kummer's functions are also related by Kummer's transformations:
Multiplication theorem
The following multiplication theorems hold true:
Connection with Laguerre polynomials and similar representations
In terms of Laguerre polynomials, Kummer's functions have several expansions, for example
Special cases
Functions that can be expressed as special cases of the confluent hypergeometric function include:
Application to continued fractions
By applying a limiting argument to Gauss's continued fraction it can be shown that
and that this continued fraction converges uniformly to a meromorphic function of z in every bounded domain that does not include a pole.