Mourad E. H. Ismail - Böcker

This volume, "Theory and Applications of Special Functions," is d- icated to Mizan Rahman in honoring him for the many important c- tributions to the theory of special functions that he has made over the years, and still continues to make. Some of the papers were presented at a special session of the American Mathematical Society Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, in January 2003 organized by Mourad Ismail. Mizan Rahman's contributions are not only contained in his own - pers, but also indirectly in other papers for which he supplied useful and often essential information. We refer to the paper on his mathematics in this volume for more information. This paper contains some personal recollections and tries to describe Mizan Rahman's literary writings in his mother tongue, Bengali. An even more personal paper on Mizan Rahman is the letter by his sons, whom we thank for allowing us to reproduce it in this book. The theory of special functions is very much an application driven field of mathematics. This is a very old field, dating back to the 18th century when physicists and mathematician were looking for solutions of the fundamental differential equations of mathematical physics. Since then the field has grown enormously, and this book reflects only part of the known applications.

The first modern treatment of orthogonal polynomials from the viewpoint of special functions is now available in paperback. Its encyclopedic coverage includes classical topics such as Jacobi, Hermite, Laguerre, Hahn, Charlier and Meixner polynomials as well as those discovered over the last 50 years, e.g. Askey-Wilson and Al-Salam-Chihara polynomial systems. Multiple orthogonal polynomials are discussed here for the first time in book form. Many modern applications of the subject are dealt with, including birth and death processes, integrable systems, combinatorics, and physical models. A chapter on open research problems and conjectures is designed to stimulate further research on the subject. Thoroughly updated and corrected since its original printing, this book continues to be valued as an authoritative reference not only by mathematicians, but also a wide range of scientists and engineers. Exercises ranging in difficulty are included to help both the graduate student and the newcomer.

This is the first of three volumes that form the Encyclopedia of Special Functions, an extensive update of the Bateman Manuscript Project. Volume 1 contains most of the material on orthogonal polynomials, from the classical orthogonal polynomials of Hermite, Laguerre and Jacobi to the Askey-Wilson polynomials, which are the most general basic hypergeometric orthogonal polynomials. Separate chapters cover orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle, zeros of orthogonal polynomials and matrix orthogonal polynomials, with detailed results about matrix-valued Jacobi polynomials. A chapter on moment problems provides many examples of indeterminate moment problems. A thorough bibliography rounds off what will be an essential reference.

Written by experts in their respective fields, this collection of pedagogic surveys provides detailed insight and background into five separate areas at the forefront of modern research in orthogonal polynomials and special functions at a level suited to graduate students. A broad range of topics are introduced including exceptional orthogonal polynomials, q-series, applications of spectral theory to special functions, elliptic hypergeometric functions, and combinatorics of orthogonal polynomials. Exercises, examples and some open problems are provided. The volume is derived from lectures presented at the OPSF-S6 Summer School at the University of Maryland, and has been carefully edited to provide a coherent and consistent entry point for graduate students and newcomers.

This volume, "Theory and Applications of Special Functions," is d- icated to Mizan Rahman in honoring him for the many important c- tributions to the theory of special functions that he has made over the years, and still continues to make. Some of the papers were presented at a special session of the American Mathematical Society Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, in January 2003 organized by Mourad Ismail. Mizan Rahman's contributions are not only contained in his own - pers, but also indirectly in other papers for which he supplied useful and often essential information. We refer to the paper on his mathematics in this volume for more information. This paper contains some personal recollections and tries to describe Mizan Rahman's literary writings in his mother tongue, Bengali. An even more personal paper on Mizan Rahman is the letter by his sons, whom we thank for allowing us to reproduce it in this book. The theory of special functions is very much an application driven field of mathematics. This is a very old field, dating back to the 18th century when physicists and mathematician were looking for solutions of the fundamental differential equations of mathematical physics. Since then the field has grown enormously, and this book reflects only part of the known applications.