Hypergeometric function

In mathematics, the Gaussian or ordinary hypergeometric function 2F1(a,b;c;z) is a special

function represented by the hypergeometric series, that includes many other special functions
as specific or limiting cases. It is a solution of a second-order linear ordinary differential equation
(ODE). Every second-order linear ODE with three regular singular points can be transformed into
this equation.

Plot of the hypergeometric function

2F1(a,b; c; z) with a=2 and b=3 and
c=4 in the complex plane from -2-2i to
2+2i with colors created with
Mathematica 13.1 function
ComplexPlot3D

For systematic lists of some of the many thousands of published identities involving the
hypergeometric function, see the reference works by Erdélyi et al. (1953) and Olde Daalhuis
(2010). There is no known system for organizing all of the identities; indeed, there is no known
algorithm that can generate all identities; a number of different algorithms are known that
generate different series of identities. The theory of the algorithmic discovery of identities
remains an active research topic.

History

The term "hypergeometric series" was first used by John Wallis in his 1655 book Arithmetica
Infinitorum.

Hypergeometric series were studied by Leonhard Euler, but the first full systematic treatment
was given by Carl Friedrich Gauss (1813).

Studies in the nineteenth century included those of Ernst Kummer (1836), and the fundamental
characterisation by Bernhard Riemann (1857) of the hypergeometric function by means of the
differential equation it satisfies.
Riemann showed that the second-order differential equation for 2F1(z), examined in the complex
plane, could be characterised (on the Riemann sphere) by its three regular singularities.

The cases where the solutions are algebraic functions were found by Hermann Schwarz
(Schwarz's list).

The hypergeometric series

The hypergeometric function is defined for |z| < 1 by the power series

It is undefined (or infinite) if c equals a non-positive integer. Here (q)n is the (rising) Pochhammer
symbol,[note 1] which is defined by:

The series terminates if either a or b is a nonpositive integer, in which case the function reduces
to a polynomial:

For complex arguments z with | z | ≥ 1 it can be analytically continued along any path in the
complex plane that avoids the branch points 1 and infinity. In practice, most computer
implementations of the hypergeometric function adopt a branch cut along the line z ≥ 1.

As c → −m, where m is a non-negative integer, one has 2F1(z) → ∞. Dividing by the value Γ(c) of
the gamma function, we have the limit:

2F1(z) is the most common type of generalized hypergeometric series pFq, and is often
designated simply F(z).

Differentiation formulas

Using the identity , it is shown that

and more generally,

Special cases

Many of the common mathematical functions can be expressed in terms of the hypergeometric
function, or as limiting cases of it. Some typical examples are

When a=1 and b=c, the series reduces into a plain geometric series, i.e.

hence, the name hypergeometric. This function can be considered as a generalization of the
geometric series.

The confluent hypergeometric function (or Kummer's function) can be given as a limit of the
hypergeometric function

so all functions that are essentially special cases of it, such as Bessel functions, can be
expressed as limits of hypergeometric functions. These include most of the commonly used
functions of mathematical physics.

Legendre functions are solutions of a second order differential equation with 3 regular singular
points so can be expressed in terms of the hypergeometric function in many ways, for example
 (α,β)
Several orthogonal polynomials, including Jacobi polynomials Pn and their special cases
Legendre polynomials, Chebyshev polynomials, Gegenbauer polynomials, Zernike polynomials
can be written in terms of hypergeometric functions using

Other polynomials that are special cases include Krawtchouk polynomials, Meixner polynomials,
Meixner–Pollaczek polynomials.

Given , let

Then

is the modular lambda function, where

The j-invariant, a modular function, is a rational function in .

Incomplete beta functions Bx(p,q) are related by

The complete elliptic integrals K and E are given by[1]

The hypergeometric differential equation

The hypergeometric function is a solution of Euler's hypergeometric differential equation

Again, when the conditions of non-integrality are not met, there exist other solutions that are
more complicated.

Any 3 of the above 6 solutions satisfy a linear relation as the space of solutions is 2-dimensional,
6
giving (3) = 20 linear relations between them called connection formulas.

Kummer's 24 solutions

A second order Fuchsian equation with n singular points has a group of symmetries acting
(projectively) on its solutions, isomorphic to the Coxeter group W(Dn) of order 2n−1n!. The
hypergeometric equation is the case n = 3, with group of order 24 isomorphic to the symmetric
group on 4 points, as first described by Kummer. The appearance of the symmetric group is
accidental and has no analogue for more than 3 singular points, and it is sometimes better to
think of the group as an extension of the symmetric group on 3 points (acting as permutations of
the 3 singular points) by a Klein 4-group (whose elements change the signs of the differences of
the exponents at an even number of singular points). Kummer's group of 24 transformations is
generated by the three transformations taking a solution F(a,b;c;z) to one of

which correspond to the transpositions (12), (23), and (34) under an isomorphism with the
symmetric group on 4 points 1, 2, 3, 4. (The first and third of these are actually equal to F(a,b;c;z)
whereas the second is an independent solution to the differential equation.)

Applying Kummer's 24 = 6×4 transformations to the hypergeometric function gives the 6 = 2×3
solutions above corresponding to each of the 2 possible exponents at each of the 3 singular
points, each of which appears 4 times because of the identities

Q-form

The hypergeometric differential equation may be brought into the Q-form

by making the substitution u = wv and eliminating the first-derivative term. One finds that

and v is given by the solution to

which is

The Q-form is significant in its relation to the Schwarzian derivative (Hille 1976, pp. 307–401).

Schwarz triangle maps

The Schwarz triangle maps or Schwarz s-functions are ratios of pairs of solutions.

where k is one of the points 0, 1, ∞. The notation

is also sometimes used. Note that the connection coefficients become Möbius transformations
on the triangle maps.

Note that each triangle map is regular at z ∈ {0, 1, ∞} respectively, with

and

In the special case of λ, μ and ν real, with 0 ≤ λ,μ,ν < 1 then the s-maps are conformal maps of the
upper half-plane H to triangles on the Riemann sphere, bounded by circular arcs. This mapping is
a generalization of the Schwarz–Christoffel mapping to triangles with circular arcs. The singular
points 0,1 and ∞ are sent to the triangle vertices. The angles of the triangle are πλ, πμ and πν
respectively.

Furthermore, in the case of λ=1/p, μ=1/q and ν=1/r for integers p, q, r, then the triangle tiles the
sphere, the complex plane or the upper half plane according to whether λ + μ + ν – 1 is positive,
zero or negative; and the s-maps are inverse functions of automorphic functions for the triangle
group 〈p, q, r〉 = Δ(p, q, r).

Monodromy group

The monodromy of a hypergeometric equation describes how fundamental solutions change

when analytically continued around paths in the z plane that return to the same point. That is,
when the path winds around a singularity of 2F1, the value of the solutions at the endpoint will
differ from the starting point.

Two fundamental solutions of the hypergeometric equation are related to each other by a linear
transformation; thus the monodromy is a mapping (group homomorphism):

where π1 is the fundamental group. In other words, the monodromy is a two dimensional linear
representation of the fundamental group. The monodromy group of the equation is the image of
this map, i.e. the group generated by the monodromy matrices. The monodromy representation
of the fundamental group can be computed explicitly in terms of the exponents at the singular
points.[2] If (α, α'), (β, β') and (γ,γ') are the exponents at 0, 1 and ∞, then, taking z0 near 0, the
loops around 0 and 1 have monodromy matrices

where

If 1−a, c−a−b, a−b are non-integer rational numbers with denominators k,l,m then the monodromy
group is finite if and only if , see Schwarz's list or Kovacic's algorithm.
Integral formulas

Euler type

If B is the beta function then

provided that z is not a real number such that it is greater than or equal to 1. This can be proved
by expanding (1 − zx)−a using the binomial theorem and then integrating term by term for z with
absolute value smaller than 1, and by analytic continuation elsewhere. When z is a real number
greater than or equal to 1, analytic continuation must be used, because (1 − zx) is zero at some
point in the support of the integral, so the value of the integral may be ill-defined. This was given
by Euler in 1748 and implies Euler's and Pfaff's hypergeometric transformations.

Other representations, corresponding to other branches, are given by taking the same integrand,
but taking the path of integration to be a closed Pochhammer cycle enclosing the singularities in
various orders. Such paths correspond to the monodromy action.

Barnes integral

Barnes used the theory of residues to evaluate the Barnes integral

as

where the contour is drawn to separate the poles 0, 1, 2... from the poles −a, −a − 1, ..., −b,
−b − 1, ... . This is valid as long as z is not a nonnegative real number.

John transform

The Gauss hypergeometric function can be written as a John transform (Gelfand, Gindikin &
Graev 2003, 2.1.2).
Gauss's contiguous relations

The six functions

are called contiguous to 2F1(a, b; c; z). Gauss showed that 2F1(a, b; c; z) can be written as a
linear combination of any two of its contiguous functions, with rational coefficients in terms of
a, b, c, and z. This gives

relations, given by identifying any two lines on the right hand side of

where F = 2F1(a, b; c; z), F(a+) = 2F1(a + 1, b; c; z), and so on. Repeatedly applying these
relations gives a linear relation over C(z) between any three functions of the form

where m, n, and l are integers.[3]

Gauss's continued fraction

Gauss used the contiguous relations to give several ways to write a quotient of two
hypergeometric functions as a continued fraction, for example:
Transformation formulas

Transformation formulas relate two hypergeometric functions at different values of the

argument z.

Fractional linear transformations

Euler's transformation is

It follows by combining the two Pfaff transformations

which in turn follow from Euler's integral representation. For extension of Euler's first and second
transformations, see Rathie & Paris (2007) and Rakha & Rathie (2011). It can also be written as
linear combination

Quadratic transformations

If two of the numbers 1 − c, c − 1, a − b, b − a, a + b − c, c − a − b are equal or one of them is 1/2

then there is a quadratic transformation of the hypergeometric function, connecting it to a
different value of z related by a quadratic equation. The first examples were given by Kummer
(1836), and a complete list was given by Goursat (1881). A typical example is
Higher order transformations

If 1−c, a−b, a+b−c differ by signs or two of them are 1/3 or −1/3 then there is a cubic
transformation of the hypergeometric function, connecting it to a different value of z related by a
cubic equation. The first examples were given by Goursat (1881). A typical example is

There are also some transformations of degree 4 and 6. Transformations of other degrees only
exist if a, b, and c are certain rational numbers (Vidunas 2005). For example,

Values at special points z

See Slater (1966, Appendix III) for a list of summation formulas at special points, most of which
also appear in Bailey (1935). Gessel & Stanton (1982) gives further evaluations at more points.
Koepf (1995) shows how most of these identities can be verified by computer algorithms.

Special values at z = 1

Gauss's summation theorem, named for Carl Friedrich Gauss, is the identity

which follows from Euler's integral formula by putting z = 1. It includes the Vandermonde identity
as a special case.

For the special case where ,

Dougall's formula generalizes this to the bilateral hypergeometric series at z = 1.

Kummer's theorem (z = −1)

There are many cases where hypergeometric functions can be evaluated at z = −1 by using a
quadratic transformation to change z = −1 to z = 1 and then using Gauss's theorem to evaluate
the result. A typical example is Kummer's theorem, named for Ernst Kummer:

which follows from Kummer's quadratic transformations

and Gauss's theorem by putting z = −1 in the first identity. For generalization of Kummer's
summation, see Lavoie, Grondin & Rathie (1996).

Values at z = 1/2

Gauss's second summation theorem is

Bailey's theorem is

For generalizations of Gauss's second summation theorem and Bailey's summation theorem, see
Lavoie, Grondin & Rathie (1996).

Other points

There are many other formulas giving the hypergeometric function as an algebraic number at
special rational values of the parameters, some of which are listed in Gessel & Stanton (1982)
and Koepf (1995). Some typical examples are given by
which can be restated as

whenever −π < x < π and T is the (generalized) Chebyshev polynomial.

See also

Appell series

Basic hypergeometric series

Bilateral hypergeometric series

Elliptic hypergeometric series

General hypergeometric function

Generalized hypergeometric series

Hypergeometric distribution

Lauricella hypergeometric series

Modular hypergeometric series

Riemann's differential equation

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External links

"Hypergeometric function" (https://www.encyclopediaofmath.org/index.php?title=Hypergeome

tric_function) , Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press, 2001 [1994]

John Pearson, Computation of Hypergeometric Functions (http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/porte

rm/research/pearson_final.pdf) (University of Oxford, MSc Thesis)
Marko Petkovsek, Herbert Wilf and Doron Zeilberger, The book "A = B" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20060129095451/http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~wilf/AeqB.html) (freely downloadable)

Weisstein, Eric W. "Hypergeometric Function" (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Hypergeometri

cFunction.html) . MathWorld.