A note on Appell sequences, Mellin transforms and Fourier series

Abstract

A large class of Appell polynomial sequences {p n (x)} n=0 8 are special values at the negative integers of an entire function F(s, x), given by the Mellin transform of the generating function for the sequence. For the Bernoulli and Apostol-Bernoulli polynomials, these are basically the Hurwitz zeta function and the Lerch transcendent. Each of these have well-known Fourier series which are proved in the literature using various techniques. Here we find the latter Fourier series by directly calculating the coefficients in a straightforward manner. We then show that, within the context of Appell sequences, these are the only cases for which the polynomials have uniformly convergent Fourier series. In the more general context of Sheffer sequences, we find that there are other polynomials with uniformly convergent Fourier series. Finally, applying the same ideas to the Fourier transform, considered as the continuous analog of the Fourier series, the Hermite polynomials play a role analogous to that of the Bernoulli polynomials