1. Introduction
Let
and
denote the sets of real and complex numbers and
z be a complex variable. For real or complex parameters
a and
b, the generalized binomial coefficient:
in which:
denotes the well-known gamma function for
, can be reduced to the particular case:
where
denotes the Pochhammer symbol [
1] given by:
Based on Pochhammer’s symbol (
1), the generalized hypergeometric functions [
2]:
are indeed a Taylor series expansion for a function, say
f, as
with
, for which the ratio of successive terms can be written as:
According to the ratio test [
3,
4], the series (
2) is convergent for any
. In fact, it converges in
for
, converges everywhere for
and converges nowhere
for
. Moreover, for
, it absolutely converges for
if the condition:
holds and is conditionally convergent for
and
if
and is finally divergent for
and
if
.
There are two important cases of the series (
2) arising in many physics problems [
5,
6]. The first case (convergent in
) is the Gauss hypergeometric function:
with the integral representation:
Replacing
in (
3) directly leads to the well-known Gauss identity [
1]:
The second case, which converges everywhere, is the Kummer confluent hypergeometric function:
with the integral representation:
Essentially, whenever a generalized hypergeometric series can be summed in terms of gamma functions, the result will be important as only a few such summation theorems are available in the literature; see, e.g., [
7,
8,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13]. In this sense, the classical summation theorems such as Kummer and Gauss for
, Dixon, Watson, Whipple and Pfaff–Saalschütz for
, Whipple for
, Dougall for
and Dougall for
are well known [
1,
14]. In this paper, we apply two identities of generalized hypergeometric functions in order to obtain some new summation theorems and extend the above-mentioned classical theorems. For this purpose, we should first recall the classical theorems as follows.
- *
Kummer’s theorem ([
1], p. 108):
- *
Second Gauss theorem ([
1], p. 108):
- *
Bailey’s theorem ([
1], p. 108):
- *
Dixon’s theorem ([
1], p. 108):
- *
Watson’s theorem ([
1], p. 108):
- *
Whipple’s theorem ([
1], p. 108):
- *
Pfaff–Saalschütz theorem ([
1], p. 108):
- *
Second Whipple theorem ([
1], p. 108):
- *
Dougall’s theorem ([
1], p. 108):
- *
Second Dougall theorem ([
1], p. 108):
In order to derive the first identity and only for simplicity, we will use the following symbol for representing finite sums of hypergeometric series:
2. First Hypergeometric Identity
Let
be two natural numbers so that
. By referring to Relation (
1), since:
substituting (
15) in a special case of (
2) yields:
Relation (
16) shows that we encounter a complicated computational problem that cannot be easily evaluated. However, some particular cases such as
and
can be directly computed. We leave other cases as open problems.
The case
leads to a known result in the literature [
14], because:
and since:
Relation (
17) is simplified as:
However, the interesting point is that using Relation (
18), we can obtain various special cases that extend all classical summation theorems as follows.
Special Case 1. When
and
, Relation (
18) is simplified as:
For
, Relation (
19) exactly gives Formula (
4), while for
, we have:
and:
These two formulas are given in [
14].
Special Case 2. When
and
, by noting the Kummer theorem (
5), Relation (
18) is simplified as:
For
, Relation (
20) exactly gives the Kummer formula, while for
, we have:
and:
Special Case 3. When
and
, by noting the second kind of Gauss Formula (
6), Relation (
18) is simplified as:
For
, Relation (
21) exactly gives the second kind of Gauss formula, while for
, we have:
and:
Special Case 4. When
and
, by noting the Bailey theorem (
7), Relation (
18) is simplified as:
For
, Relation (
22) exactly gives the Bailey formula, while for
, we have:
and:
Special Case 5. When
and
, by noting the Dixon theorem (
8), Relation (
18) is simplified as:
For
, Relation (
23) exactly gives the Dixon formula, while for
, we have:
and:
Special Case 6. When
and
, by noting the Watson theorem (
9), Relation (
18) is simplified as:
For
, Relation (
24) exactly gives the Watson formula, while for
, we have:
and:
Special Case 7. When
and
, by noting the Whipple theorem (
10), Relation (
18) is simplified as:
For
, Relation (
25) exactly gives the Whipple formula, while for
, we have:
and:
Special Case 8. When
and
, by noting the Pfaff–Saalschütz theorem (
11), Relation (
18) is simplified as:
For
, Relation (
26) exactly gives the Pfaff–Saalschütz formula, while for
, we have:
and:
Special Case 9. When
and
, by noting the second theorem of Whipple (
12), Relation (
18) is simplified as:
For
, Relation (
27) exactly gives the Whipple formula, while for
, we have:
and:
Special Case 10. When
and
, by noting the Dougall theorem (
13), Relation (
18) is simplified as:
For
, Relation (
28) exactly gives the Dougall formula, while for
, we have:
and:
Special Case 11. When
and
, by noting the second theorem of Dougall (
14), Relation (
18) is simplified as:
For
, Relation (
29) exactly gives the Dougall formula, while for
, we have:
and:
Remark 1. There are two further special cases, which however do not belong to classical summation theorems. When , Relation (18) is simplified as:and when , it yields: Similarly, for the case
, Relation (
16) changes to:
For instance, if
, Relation (
30) reads as:
Hence, for
and
, we have:
3. Second Hypergeometric Identity
By noting Relation (
1), first it is not difficult to verify that:
Now, if the identity (
31) is applied in a special case of (
2), we obtain:
leading to the second identity:
which is equivalent to:
Once again, the interesting point is that by using Relation (
32) or (
33), various special cases can be considered as follows.
Special Case 12. When
and
, by noting the Kummer formula and Relation (
32), we get:
For instance, if
, Relation (
34) is simplified as:
and:
Special Case 13. When
and
, by noting the second kind of Gauss formula and Relation (
32), we get:
For instance, if
, Relation (
35) is simplified as:
and:
Special Case 14. When
and
, by noting the Dixon formula and Relation (
32), we get:
For instance, if
, Relation (
36) is simplified as:
and:
Special Case 15. When
and
, by noting the Watson formula and Relation (
32), we get:
For instance, if
, Relation (
37) is simplified as:
and:
Special Case 16. When
and
, by noting the Whipple formula and Relation (
32), we get:
For instance, if
, Relation (
38) is simplified as:
and:
Special Case 17. When
and
, by noting the Pfaff–Saalschutz formula and Relation (
32), we get:
For instance, if
, Relation (
39) is simplified as:
and:
Special Case 18. When
and
, by noting the Whipple formula and Relation (
32), we get:
For instance, if
, Relation (
40) is simplified as:
and:
Special Case 19. When
and
, by noting the Dougall formula and Relation (
32), we get:
For instance, if
, Relation (
41) is simplified as:
and:
Special Case 20. When
and
, by noting the Dougall formula and Relation (
32), we get:
For instance, if
, Relation (
42) is simplified as:
and:
4. Conclusions
In this paper, we applied two identities for generalized hypergeometric series in order to extend some classical summation theorems of hypergeometric functions such as Gauss, Kummer, Dixon, Watson, Whipple, Pfaff–Saalschütz and Dougall formulas and then obtained some new summation theorems using the second introduced hypergeometric identity.