In mathematics, the continuous Hahn polynomials are a family of orthogonal polynomials in the Askey scheme of hypergeometric orthogonal polynomials. They are defined in terms of generalized hypergeometric functions by
\( {\displaystyle p_{n}(x;a,b,c,d) =i^{n}{\frac {(a+c)_{n}(a+d)_{n}}{n!}}{}_{3}F_{2}\left({\begin{array}{c}-n,n+a+b+c+d-1,a+ix\\a+c,a+d\end{array}};1\right)} \)
Roelof Koekoek, Peter A. Lesky, and René F. Swarttouw (2010, 14) give a detailed list of their properties.
Closely related polynomials include the dual Hahn polynomials Rn(x;γ,δ,N), the Hahn polynomials Qn(x;a,b,c), and the continuous dual Hahn polynomials Sn(x;a,b,c). These polynomials all have q-analogs with an extra parameter q, such as the q-Hahn polynomials Qn(x;α,β, N;q), and so on.
Orthogonality
The continuous Hahn polynomials pn(x;a,b,c,d) are orthogonal with respect to the weight function
\( {\displaystyle w(x)=\Gamma (a+ix)\,\Gamma (b+ix)\,\Gamma (c-ix)\,\Gamma (d-ix).} \)
In particular, they satisfy the orthogonality relation[1][2][3]
\( {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}&{\frac {1}{2\pi }}\int _{-\infty }^{\infty }\Gamma (a+ix)\,\Gamma (b+ix)\,\Gamma (c-ix)\,\Gamma (d-ix)\,p_{m}(x;a,b,c,d)\,p_{n}(x;a,b,c,d)\,dx\\&\qquad \qquad ={\frac {\Gamma (n+a+c)\,\Gamma (n+a+d)\,\Gamma (n+b+c)\,\Gamma (n+b+d)}{n!(2n+a+b+c+d-1)\,\Gamma (n+a+b+c+d-1)}}\,\delta _{nm}\end{aligned}}} \)
for \( {\displaystyle \Re (a)>0} \), \( {\displaystyle \Re (b)>0} \), \( {\displaystyle \Re (c)>0} \), \( {\displaystyle \Re (d)>0} \) ,\( {\displaystyle c={\overline {a}}} \) , \( {\displaystyle d={\overline {b}}}. \)
Recurrence and difference relations
The sequence of continuous Hahn polynomials satisfies the recurrence relation[4]
\( {\displaystyle xp_{n}(x)=p_{n+1}(x)+i(A_{n}+C_{n})p_{n}(x)-A_{n-1}C_{n}p_{n-1}(x),}
where \( {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\text{where}}\quad &p_{n}(x)={\frac {n!(n+a+b+c+d-1)!}{(2n+a+b+c+d-1)!}}p_{n}(x;a,b,c,d),\\&A_{n}=-{\frac {(n+a+b+c+d-1)(n+a+c)(n+a+d)}{(2n+a+b+c+d-1)(2n+a+b+c+d)}},\\{\text{and}}\quad &C_{n}={\frac {n(n+b+c-1)(n+b+d-1)}{(2n+a+b+c+d-2)(2n+a+b+c+d-1)}}.\end{aligned}}} \)
Rodrigues formula
The continuous Hahn polynomials are given by the Rodrigues-like formula[5]
\( {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}&\Gamma (a+ix)\,\Gamma (b+ix)\,\Gamma (c-ix)\,\Gamma (d-ix)\,p_{n}(x;a,b,c,d)\\&\qquad ={\frac {(-1)^{n}}{n!}}{\frac {d^{n}}{dx^{n}}}\left(\Gamma \left(a+{\frac {n}{2}}+ix\right)\,\Gamma \left(b+{\frac {n}{2}}+ix\right)\,\Gamma \left(c+{\frac {n}{2}}-ix\right)\,\Gamma \left(d+{\frac {n}{2}}-ix\right)\right).\end{aligned}}} \)
Generating functions
The continuous Hahn polynomials have the following generating function:[6]
\( {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}&\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }{\frac {\Gamma (n+a+b+c+d)\,\Gamma (a+c+1)\,\Gamma (a+d+1)}{\Gamma (a+b+c+d)\,\Gamma (n+a+c+1)\,\Gamma (n+a+d+1)}}(-it)^{n}p_{n}(x;a,b,c,d)\\&\qquad =(1-t)^{1-a-b-c-d}{}_{3}F_{2}\left({\begin{array}{c}{\frac {1}{2}}(a+b+c+d-1),{\frac {1}{2}}(a+b+c+d),a+ix\\a+c,a+d\end{array}};-{\frac {4t}{(1-t)^{2}}}\right).\end{aligned}}} \)
A second, distinct generating function is given by
\( {\displaystyle \sum _{n=0}^{\infty }{\frac {\Gamma (a+c+1)\,\Gamma (b+d+1)}{\Gamma (n+a+c+1)\,\Gamma (n+b+d+1)}}t^{n}p_{n}(x;a,b,c,d)=\,_{1}F_{1}\left({\begin{array}{c}a+ix\\a+c\end{array}};-it\right)\,_{1}F_{1}\left({\begin{array}{c}d-ix\\b+d\end{array}};it\right).} \)
Relation to other polynomials
The Wilson polynomials are a generalization of the continuous Hahn polynomials.
The Bateman polynomials Fn(x) are related to the special case a=b=c=d=1/2 of the continuous Hahn polynomials by
\( {\displaystyle p_{n}\left(x;{\tfrac {1}{2}},{\tfrac {1}{2}},{\tfrac {1}{2}},{\tfrac {1}{2}}\right)=i^{n}n!F_{n}\left(2ix\right).} \)
The Jacobi polynomials Pn(α,β)(x) can be obtained as a limiting case of the continuous Hahn polynomials:[7]
\( {\displaystyle P_{n}^{(\alpha ,\beta )}=\lim _{t\to \infty }t^{-n}p_{n}\left({\tfrac {1}{2}}xt;{\tfrac {1}{2}}(\alpha +1-it),{\tfrac {1}{2}}(\beta +1+it),{\tfrac {1}{2}}(\alpha +1+it),{\tfrac {1}{2}}(\beta +1-it)\right).} \)
References
Koekoek, Lesky, & Swarttouw (2010), p. 200.
Askey, R. (1985), "Continuous Hahn polynomials", J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 18: pp. L1017-L1019.
Andrews, Askey, & Roy (1999), p. 333.
Koekoek, Lesky, & Swarttouw (2010), p. 201.
Koekoek, Lesky, & Swarttouw (2010), p. 202.
Koekoek, Lesky, & Swarttouw (2010), p. 202.
Koekoek, Lesky, & Swarttouw (2010), p. 203.
Hahn, Wolfgang (1949), "Über Orthogonalpolynome, die q-Differenzengleichungen genügen", Mathematische Nachrichten, 2: 4–34, doi:10.1002/mana.19490020103, ISSN 0025-584X, MR 0030647
Koekoek, Roelof; Lesky, Peter A.; Swarttouw, René F. (2010), Hypergeometric orthogonal polynomials and their q-analogues, Springer Monographs in Mathematics, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-05014-5, ISBN 978-3-642-05013-8, MR 2656096
Koornwinder, Tom H.; Wong, Roderick S. C.; Koekoek, Roelof; Swarttouw, René F. (2010), "Hahn Class: Definitions", in Olver, Frank W. J.; Lozier, Daniel M.; Boisvert, Ronald F.; Clark, Charles W. (eds.), NIST Handbook of Mathematical Functions, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-19225-5, MR 2723248
Andrews, George E.; Askey, Richard; Roy, Ranjan (1999), Special functions, Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications 71, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-62321-6
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