Umbral Vade Mecum

In recent years the umbral calculus has emerged from the shadows to provide an elegant correspondence framework that automatically gives systematic solutions of ubiquitous difference equations --- discretized versions of the differential cornerstones appearing in most areas of physics and engineering --- as maps of well-known continuous functions. This correspondence deftly sidesteps the use of more traditional methods to solve these difference equations. The umbral framework is discussed and illustrated here, with special attention given to umbral counterparts of the Airy, Kummer, and Whittaker equations, and to umbral maps of solitons for the Sine-Gordon, Korteweg--de Vries, and Toda systems.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0710.230

On hypergeometric series reductions from integral representations, the Kampe de Feriet function, and elsewhere

Single variable hypergeometric functions pFq arise in connection with the power series solution of the Schrodinger equation or in the summation of perturbation expansions in quantum mechanics. For these applications, it is of interest to obtain analytic expressions, and we present the reduction of a number of cases of pFp and p+1F_p, mainly for p=2 and p=3. These and related series have additional applications in quantum and statistical physics and chemistry.Comment: 17 pages, no figure

Mellin transforms with only critical zeros: generalized Hermite functions

We consider the Mellin transforms of certain generalized Hermite functions based upon certain generalized Hermite polynomials, characterized by a parameter $\mu>-1/2$. We show that the transforms have polynomial factors whose zeros lie all on the critical line. The polynomials with zeros only on the critical line are identified in terms of certain $_2F_1(2)$ hypergeometric functions, being certain scaled and shifted Meixner-Pollaczek polynomials. Other results of special function theory are presented.Comment: 17 pages, no figure