1. Introduction
For a fixed integer
, the mixed-type hypergeometric Bernoulli–Gegenbauer polynomials
of order
, where
, are defined through generating the functions and series expansions as follows:
where
,
, and
.
The polynomials represent a fascinating fusion between two classes of special functions: hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials and Gegenbauer polynomials.
A significant amount of research has been conducted on various generalizations and analogs of the Bernoulli polynomials and the Bernoulli numbers. For a comprehensive treatment of the diverse aspects, including summation formulas and applications, interested readers can refer to recent works [
1,
2]. Inspired by recent articles [
3,
4,
5,
6,
7] where authors explore analytic and numerical aspects of hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials, hypergeometric Euler polynomials, generalized mixed-type Bernoulli–Gegenbauer polynomials, and Lagrange-based hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials, this article focuses on the algebraic and differential properties of the polynomials
. These properties include their explicit expressions, derivative formulas, matrix representations, matrix-inversion formulas, and other relationships connecting them with hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials.
The paper is organized as follows.
Section 2 provides relevant information about hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials and Gegenbauer polynomials.
Section 3 is dedicated to the study of the main algebraic and analytic properties of the HBG polynomials (
1) and (
2), which are summarized in Theorems 1–4, and Proposition 6.
2. Background and Previous Results
Throughout this paper, let , , , , and denote, respectively, the sets of natural numbers, non-negative integers, integers, real numbers, and complex numbers. As usual, we always use the principal branch for complex powers, in particular, for . Furthermore, the convention is adopted.
For
and
, we use the notations
and
for the rising and falling factorials, respectively, i.e.,
and
From now on, we denote by
the linear space of polynomials with real coefficients and a degree less than or equal to
n. Moreover, to present some of our results, we require the use of the generalized multinomial theorem (cf. [
8,
9] and the references therein).
2.1. Hypergeometric Bernoulli Polynomials
For a fixed
, the hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials are defined by means of the following generating function [
5,
10,
11,
12,
13,
14]:
and the hypergeometric Bernoulli numbers are defined by
for all
. The hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials also are called generalized Bernoulli polynomials of level
m [
5,
6]. It is clear that if
in (
3), then we obtain the definition of the classical Bernoulli polynomials
and classical Bernoulli numbers, respectively, i.e.,
and
, respectively, for all
.
The first four hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials are as follows:
The following results summarize some properties of the hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials (cf. [
5,
6,
11,
12,
15]).
Proposition 1 ([
5], Proposition 1).
For a fixed , let be the sequence of hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials. Then the following statements hold:- (a)
Summation formula. For every , - (b)
Differential relations (Appell polynomial sequences). For with , we have - (c)
Inversion formula. ([12], Equation (2.6)) For every , - (d)
Recurrence relation. ([12], Lemma 3.2) For every , - (e)
- (f)
([12], Theorem 3.1) Differential equation. For every , the polynomial satisfies the following differential equation
As a straightforward consequence of the inversion Formula (
6), the following expected algebraic property is obtained.
Proposition 2 ([
5], Proposition 2).
For a fixed and each , the set is a basis for , i.e., Let
be the Riemann zeta function defined by
The following result provides a formula for evaluating in terms of the hypergeometric Bernoulli numbers.
Proposition 3 ([
6], Theorem 3.3).
For a fixed and any , the following identity holds.where 2.2. Gegenbauer Polynomials
For
, we denote by
the sequence of Gegenbauer polynomials, orthogonal on
with respect to the measure
(cf. [
16], Chapter IV), normalized by
More precisely,
where the constant
is positive. It is clear that the normalization above does not allow
to be zero or a negative integer. Nevertheless, the following limits exist for every
(see [
16], (4.7.8))
where
is the
nth Chebyshev polynomial of the first kind. In order to avoid confusing notation, we define the sequence
as follows:
We denote the
nth monic Gegenbauer orthogonal polynomial by
where the constant
(cf. [
16], Formula (4.7.31)) is given by
Then for
, we have
Gegenbauer polynomials are closely connected with axially symmetric potentials in
n dimensions (cf. [
4] and the references cited therein), and contain the Legendre and Chebyshev polynomials as special cases. Furthermore, they inherit practically all the formulas known in the classical theory of Legendre polynomials.
Proposition 4 ([
17], cf. Proposition 2.1).
Let be the sequence of monic Gegenbauer orthogonal polynomials. Then the following statements hold.- (a)
Three-term recurrence relation.with initial conditions , and recurrence coefficients ,, . - (b)
For every (see [16], (4.7.15)) - (c)
- (d)
Structure relation (see [16], (4.7.29)). For every where - (e)
For every (see [16], Formula (4.7.14)) - (f)
For every (see [18], Proposition 2.1)
As is well known, the monic Gegenbauer orthogonal polynomials admit other different definitions [
16,
19,
20,
21]. In order to deal with the definitions (
1) and (
2) of the HBG polynomials, we also are interested in the definition of the monic Gegenbauer orthogonal polynomials by means of the following generating functions:
and
Remark 1. Note that (10) and (11) are suitable modifications of the generating functions for the Gegenbauer polynomials : 3. The Polynomials and Their Properties
Now, we can proceed to investigate some relevant properties of the HBG polynomials.
Proposition 5. For , let be the sequence of HBG polynomials of order α. Then the following explicit formulas hold. Proof. On account of the generating functions (
1) and (
10), it suffices to make a suitable use of Cauchy product of series in order to deduce the expression (
12).
Similarly, taking into account the generating functions (
2) and (
11), we can use an analogous reasoning to the previous one to obtain expression (
13). □
Thus, the suitable use of (
8) and (
12) allow us to check that for
, the first five HBG polynomials are:
where
,
.
In contrast to the hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials and Gegenbauer polynomials, the HBG polynomials neither satisfy a Hanh condition nor an Appell condition. More precisely, we have the following result.
Theorem 1. For , let be the sequence of HBG polynomials of order α. Then we have Proof. From (
12), we have
differentiating this last equation, and using part (e) of Proposition 4, (
14) follows. □
Furthermore, it is possible to establish an integral formula connecting the HBG polynomials with the monic Gegenbauer polynomials. This integral formula allows us to deduce a concise expression for the Fourier coefficients of the HBG polynomials in terms of the basis of monic Gegenbauer polynomials.
Lemma 1. For , let be the sequence of HBG polynomials of order α. Then, the following formula holds.whenever . Proof. In order to obtain (
16), it suffices to use the orthogonality properties of the monic Gegenbauer polynomials (
4), (
7), (
9), (
12) and (
13). □
Regarding the zero distribution of these polynomials, the numerical evidence indicates that this distribution does not align with the behavior of either Bernoulli hypergeometric polynomials or Gegenbauer polynomials. For instance, in
Figure 1, the plots for the zeros of
and
are shown for
and
.
As expected, the symmetry property of Gegenbauer polynomials is not inherited by the HBG polynomials. For instance,
Figure 2 displays the induced mesh of
for
,
, and
. Each point on this mesh takes the form
,
. In contrast,
Figure 3 displays the induced mesh of
for
, and
.
For any , it is possible to deduce interesting relations connecting the HBG polynomials and the hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials . The following two results concern these relations.
Proposition 6. For a fixed , let be the nth HBG polynomial of order . Then, the following relation is satisfied: Proof. On the account of generalized multinomial theorem, we deduce that
Next, (
1), (
3) and (
18) imply that
Since the sum on the right-hand side of (
18) is finite, (
17) follows directly from (
19). □
Theorem 2. For a fixed , the HBG polynomials are related with the hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials by means of the following identities. Proof. From the identities (
2) and (
3), we have
Multiplying, respectively, the left-hand side of the above expression by
and the right-hand side by
, we obtain the following equivalent expression:
Therefore, by comparing the coefficients on both sides of (
21), we obtain the identities (
20). □
Remark 2. When , Equation (18) becomesThus, for we can combine the above identity with (17), and obtain the following connecting relations: Hence, as a straightforward consequence of (17) and (20), the HBG polynomials and are related by means of the following identities: Using (
12), (
13), and employing a matrix approach, we can obtain a matrix representation for
,
. In order to implement that, we follow some ideas from [
4,
5].
First of all, we must point out that for
, Equations (
12) and (
13) allow us to deduce the following matrix form of
:
where
the null entries of the matrix
appear
-times, and the matrix
is given by
.
Now, for
, let
be the
whose rows are precisely the matrices
for
. That is,
and from (
7):
It is clear that the matrix is a lower triangular matrix for each , so that Therefore, is a nonsingular matrix for each and .
Theorem 3. For a fixed and any , let be the sequence of HBG polynomials. Then, the following matrix representation holds.where . Proof. For each
, consider the matrix form (
24) of
. Then, it is not difficult to see that the matrix
becomes
and (
25) follows. □
The following examples show how Theorem 3 can be used.
Example 1. Let us consider , and then,where Sincethen (26) becomesThat is, the entries of the matrix are the first four classical Bernoulli polynomials. It is worth noting that for , the HBG polynomials coincide with the GBG polynomials , for all (cf. [4]). Example 2. Let and . From (25), we obtain Straightforward calculations show that this last matrix coincides with Hence, .
We can now proceed as outlined in [
5]. From the summation Formula (
4) it follows
where
the null entries of the matrix
appear
-times, and
Analogously, by (
27) the matrix
, can be expressed as follows:
Notice that according to (
27) the rows of the matrix
are precisely the matrices
for
. Furthermore, the matrix
is a lower triangular matrix, so that
. Therefore,
is a nonsingular matrix.
Another interesting algebraic property of the HBG polynomials is related with the following matrix-inversion formula.
Theorem 4. For a fixed and any , let be the sequence of HBG polynomials. Then, the following formula holds.where . Proof. Using the inversion Formulas (
6), (
25) and (
28), and the nonsingularity of the matrices
and
, it is possible to deduce that
and (
29) follows. □
A simple and important consequence of Theorem 4 is:
Corollary 1. For a fixed and any the set is a basis for , i.e., 4. Conclusions
In the present paper, we introduced the mixed-type hypergeometric Bernoulli–Gegenbauer polynomials and analyzed some algebraic and differential properties of these polynomials, including their explicit expressions, derivative formulas, matrix representations, matrix-inversion formulas, and other relations connecting them with the hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials. Furthermore, we demonstrated that unlike the hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials and Gegenbauer polynomials, the HBG polynomials do not fulfill either Hanh or Appell conditions.
It is worth noting that the utilization of a matrix approach, specifically employing the operational matrix method based on hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials, underpins several of our formulations. The matrix approaches using operational matrix methods associated with special polynomials and their practical applications constitute a relatively recent area of interest, as evidenced by the substantial body of literature (see, for instance, refs. [
22,
23,
24,
25,
26,
27,
28] and the references therein). However, within the context of mixed special polynomials, to the best of our knowledge, there are no other published works that have adopted a similar approach, with the possible exception of a recent investigation [
4].
Furthermore, we provided some examples to illustrate that the class of HBG polynomials does not generalize to the classical Bernoulli polynomials, although the latter can be recovered using Theorem 3. Unfortunately, the numerical evidence suggests that the zero distribution of the HBG polynomials does not align with the behavior of either Bernoulli hypergeometric polynomials or Gegenbauer polynomials.
Finally, by employing the determinantal approach introduced by Costabile and Longo [
29], which implies that hypergeometric Bernoulli polynomials have a corresponding determinant form, and considering Theorem 3, it becomes feasible to investigate the determinantal forms associated with the HBG polynomials. Furthermore, Theorem 4 and the differential equation presented in part (f) of Proposition 1 (cf. [
12], Theorem 3.1) suggest that the HBG polynomials satisfy a differential equation of order
n. These two properties, along with their implications and potential applications, will be the focus of our future work.