In chapter I known asymptotic forms and expansions of the hypergeometric function obtained by Erdélyi [5], Hapaev [10,11], Knottnerus [15L Sommerfeld [25] and Watson [28] are discussed. Also the asymptotic expansions of the hypergeometric function occurring in gas-flow theory will be discussed. These expansions were obtained by Cherry [1,2], Lighthill [17] and Seifert [2J]. Moreover, using a paper by Thorne [28] asymptotic expansions of ₂F₁(p+1, -p; 1-m; (1-t)/2), -1 < t < 1, and ₂P₁( (p+m+2)/2, (p+m+1)/2; p+ 3/2-, t⁻² ), t > 1, are obtained as p-»» and m = -(p+ 1/2)a, where a is fixed and 0 < a < 1. The : expansions are in terms of Airy functions of the first kind. The hypergeometric equation is normalized in chapter II. It readily yields the two turning points t₁, i = 1,2. If we consider,the case the a=b is a large real parameter of the hypergeometric function ₂F₁(a,b; c; t), then the turning points coalesce with the regular singularities t = 0 and t = ∞ of the hypergeometric equation as | a | →∞. In chapter III new asymptotic forms are found for this particular case; that is, for ₂F₁ (a, a; c;t) , 0 < T₁ ≤ t < 1, and ₂F₁ (a,a+1-c; 1; t⁻¹), 1 < t ≤ T₂ < ∞ , as –a → ∞ . The asymptotic form is in terms of modified Bessel functions of order 1/2. Asymptotic expansions can be obtained in a similar manner. Furthermore, a new asymptotic form is derived for ₂F₁ (c-a, c-a; c; t), 0 < T₁ ≤ t < 1, as –a → ∞, this result then leads to a sharper estimate on the modulus of n-th order derivatives of holomorphic functions as n becomes large. / Science, Faculty of / Mathematics, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph.D.) from the Dept. of Statistics, University of Adelaide, 1971.

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-60). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis--University of Michigan. / "Presented to the American Mathematical Society, Chicago, April 10, 1936." Includes bibliographical references (p. 21).

Thesis--University of Michigan. / "Presented to the American Mathematical Society, Chicago, April 10, 1936." Includes bibliographical references (p. 21).

Thesis (doctoral)--Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin, 1874. / Vita.

A.D. MacDonald. / "July 15, 1949." / Bibliography: p. 10. / Signal Corps Contract No. W36-039-sc-32037 Project No. 102B Dept. of the Army Project No. 3-99-10-022

A.D. MacDonald. / GRSN 255639 / "November 18, 1948." / Includes bibliographical references. / Supported by the Army Signal Corps, the Navy Department (Office of Naval Research) and the Air Force (Air Material Command) under Signal Corps. W36-039-sc-32037 102B Supported by the Department of the Army. 3-99-10-022

Classical hypergeometric functions and their relations to counting points on curves over finite fields have been investigated by mathematicians since the beginnings of 1900. In the mid 1980s, John Greene developed the theory of hypergeometric functions over finite fi elds. He explored the properties of these functions and found that they satisfy many summation and transformation formulas analogous to those satisfi ed by the classical functions. These similarities generated interest in finding connections that hypergeometric functions over finite fields may have with other objects. In recent years, connections between these functions and elliptic curves and other Calabi-Yau varieties have been investigated by mathematicians such as Ahlgren, Frechette, Fuselier, Koike, Ono and Papanikolas. A survey of these results is given at the beginning of this dissertation. We then introduce hypergeometric functions over finite fi elds and some of their properties. Next, we focus our attention on a particular family of curves and give an explicit relationship between the number of points on this family over Fq and sums of values of certain hypergeometric functions over Fq. Moreover, we show that these hypergeometric functions can be explicitly related to the roots of the zeta function of the curve over Fq in some particular cases. Based on numerical computations, we are able to state a conjecture relating these values in a more general setting, and advances toward the proof of this result are shown in the last chapter of this dissertation. We nish by giving various avenues for future study.

Hypergeometric functions seem to be ubiquitous in mathematics. In this document, we present a couple of ways in which hypergeometric functions appear in arithmetic geometry. First, we show that the number of points over a finite field [mathematical symbol] on a certain family of hypersurfaces, [mathematical symbol] ([lamda]), is a linear combination of hypergeometric functions. We use results by Koblitz and Gross to find explicit relationships, which could be useful for computing Zeta functions in the future. We then study more geometric aspects of the same families. A construction of Dwork's gives a vector bundle of deRham cohomologies equipped with a connection. This connection gives rise to a differential equation which is known to be hypergeometric. We developed an algorithm which computes the parameters of the hypergeometric equations given the family of hypersurfaces. / text