Digital Library of Mathematical Functions
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15 Hypergeometric FunctionProperties

§15.13 Zeros

Let N(a,b,c) denote the number of zeros of \mathop{F\/}\nolimits\!\left(a,b;c;z\right) in the sector |\mathop{\mathrm{ph}\/}\nolimits\!\left(1-z\right)|<\pi. If a, b, c are real, a, b, c, c-a, c-b\neq 0,-1,-2,\dots, and, without loss of generality, b\geq a, c\geq a+b (compare (15.8.1)), then

where S=\mathop{\mathrm{sign}\/}\nolimits\!\left(\mathop{\Gamma\/}\nolimits\!\left(a%
\right)\mathop{\Gamma\/}\nolimits\!\left(b\right)\mathop{\Gamma\/}\nolimits\!%
\left(c-a\right)\mathop{\Gamma\/}\nolimits\!\left(c-b\right)\right).

If a, b, c, c-a, or c-b\in\{0,-1,-2,\dots\}, then \mathop{F\/}\nolimits\!\left(a,b;c;z\right) is not defined, or reduces to a polynomial, or reduces to (1-z)^{{c-a-b}} times a polynomial.

For further information on the location of real zeros see Zarzo et al. (1995). A small table of zeros is given in Conde and Kalla (1981) and Segura (2008).