Hypergeometric Functions On Domains Of Positivity Jack Polynomials And Applications

Hypergeometric Functions on Domains of Positivity, Jack Polynomials, and Applications

This book is the first set of proceedings to be devoted entirely to the theory of hypergeometric functions defined on domains of positivity. Most of the scientific areas in which these functions are applied include analytic number theory, combinatorics, harmonic analysis, random walks, representation theory, and mathematical physics - are represented here. This volume is based largely on lectures presented at a Special Session at the AMS meeting in Tampa, Florida in March 1991, which was devoted to hypergeometric functions of matrix argument and to fostering communication among representatives of the diverse scientific areas in which these functions are utilized. Accessible to graduate students and others seeking an introduction to the state of the art in this area, this book is a suitable text for advanced graduate seminar courses for it contains many open problems.

Jack, Hall-Littlewood and Macdonald Polynomials

The subject of symmetric functions began with the work of Jacobi, Schur, Weyl, Young and others on the Schur polynomials. In the 1950's and 60's, far-reaching generalizations of Schur polynomials were obtained by Hall and Littlewood (independently) and, in a different direction, by Jack. In the 1980's, Macdonald unified these developments by introducing a family of polynomials associated with arbitrary root systems. The last twenty years have witnessed considerable progress in this area, revealing new and profound connections with representation theory, algebraic geometry, combinatorics, special functions, classical analysis and mathematical physics. All these fields and more are represented in this volume, which contains the proceedings of a conference on Jack, Hall-Littlewood and Macdonald polynomials held at ICMS, Edinburgh, during September 23-26, 2003. of historical material, including brief biographies of Hall, Littlewood, Jack and Macdonald; the original papers of Littlewood and Jack; notes on Hall's work by Macdonald; and a recently discovered unpublished manuscript by Jack (annotated by Macdonald). The book will be invaluable to students and researchers who wish to learn about this beautiful and exciting subject.

Orthogonal Polynomials and Special Functions