A series xn is called hypergeometric if the ratio of successive terms xn+1/xn is a rational function of n. If the ratio of successive terms is a rational function of qn, then the series is called a basic hypergeometric series.
There are two forms of basic hypergeometric series, the unilateral basic hypergeometric series φ, and the more general bilateral basic hypergeometric series ψ.
The unilateral basic hypergeometric series is defined as where and is the q-shifted factorial.
The most important special case is when j = k + 1, when it becomes This series is called balanced if a1 ... ak + 1 = b1 ...bkq.
The unilateral basic hypergeometric series is a q-analog of the hypergeometric series since holds (Koekoek & Swarttouw (1996)).
The bilateral basic hypergeometric series, corresponding to the bilateral hypergeometric series, is defined as The most important special case is when j = k, when it becomes The unilateral series can be obtained as a special case of the bilateral one by setting one of the b variables equal to q, at least when none of the a variables is a power of q, as all the terms with n < 0 then vanish.
Some simple series expressions include and and The q-binomial theorem (first published in 1811 by Heinrich August Rothe)[1][2] states that which follows by repeatedly applying the identity The special case of a = 0 is closely related to the q-exponential.
[3] Srinivasa Ramanujan gave the identity valid for |q| < 1 and |b/a| < |z| < 1.
Such identities can be understood to be generalizations of the Jacobi triple product theorem, which can be written using q-series as Ken Ono gives a related formal power series[4] As an analogue of the Barnes integral for the hypergeometric series, Watson showed that where the poles of
This contour integral gives an analytic continuation of the basic hypergeometric function in z.
The basic hypergeometric matrix function can be defined as follows: The ratio test shows that this matrix function is absolutely convergent.