Basic hypergeometric series
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In mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, Heine's basic hypergeometric series, or hypergeometric q-series, are q-analog
Q-analog
Roughly speaking, in mathematics, specifically in the areas of combinatorics and special functions, a q-analog of a theorem, identity or expression is a generalization involving a new parameter q that returns the original theorem, identity or expression in the limit as q → 1...

 generalizations of generalized hypergeometric series, and are in turn generalized by elliptic hypergeometric series
Elliptic hypergeometric series
In mathematics, an elliptic hypergeometric series is a series Σcn such that the ratiocn/cn−1 is an elliptic function of n, analogous to generalized hypergeometric series where the ratio is a rational function of n, and basic hypergeometric series where the ratio is a periodic function of the...

.
A series xn is called hypergeometric if the ratio of successive terms xn+1/xn is a rational function
Rational function
In mathematics, a rational function is any function which can be written as the ratio of two polynomial functions. Neither the coefficients of the polynomials nor the values taken by the function are necessarily rational.-Definitions:...

 of n. If the ratio of successive terms is a rational function of qn, then the series is called a basic hypergeometric series. The number q is called the base.

The basic hypergeometric series 2φ1(qα,qβ;qγ;q,x) was first considered by . It becomes the hypergeometric series F(α,β;γ;x) in the limit when the base q is 1.

Definition

There are two forms of basic hypergeometric series, the unilateral basic hypergeometric series φ, and the more general bilateral basic geometric series ψ.
The unilateral basic hypergeometric series is defined as


where

and where

is the q-shifted factorial.
The most important special case is when j = k+1, when it becomes
This series is called balanced if a1...ak+1 = b1...bkq.
This series is called well poised if a1q = a2b1 = ... = ak+1bk, and very well poised if in addition a2 = −a3 = qa11/2.

The bilateral basic hypergeometric series, corresponding to the bilateral hypergeometric series
Bilateral hypergeometric series
In mathematics, a bilateral hypergeometric series is a series Σan summed over all integers n, and such that the ratioof two terms is a rational function of n...

, is defined as


The most important special case is when j = k, when it becomes

The unilateral series can be obtained as a special case of the bilateral one by setting one of the b variables equal to q, at least when none of the a variables is a power of q., as all the terms with n<0 then vanish.

Simple series

Some simple series expressions include


and


and

The q-binomial theorem

The q-binomial theorem states that


which follows by repeatedly applying the identity

The special case of is closely related to the q-exponential.

Ramanujan's identity

Ramanujan gave the identity


valid for and . Similar identities for have been given by Bailey. Such identities can be understood to be generalizations of the Jacobi triple product theorem, which can be written using q-series as


Ken Ono
Ken Ono
Ken Ono is an American mathematician who specializes in number theory, especially in integer partitions, modular forms, and the fields of interest to Srinivasa Ramanujan...

 gives a related formal power series
Formal power series
In mathematics, formal power series are a generalization of polynomials as formal objects, where the number of terms is allowed to be infinite; this implies giving up the possibility to substitute arbitrary values for indeterminates...



Watson's contour integral

As an analogue of the Barnes integral
Barnes integral
In mathematics, a Barnes integral or Mellin–Barnes integral is a contour integral involving a product of gamma functions. They were introduced by...

for the hypergeometric series, Watson showed that
where the poles of lie to the left of the contour and the remaining poles lie to the right. There is a similar contour integral for r+1φr. This contour integral gives an analytic continuation of the basic hypergeometric function in z.
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