The general second-order Fuchsian equation with
regular
singularities at
,
, and at
, is given by

The exponents at the finite singularities
are
and those at
are
, where
The three sets of parameters comprise the singularity parameters
,
the exponent parameters
, and the
free
accessory parameters
. With
and
the total
number of free parameters is
. Heun’s equation (31.2.1)
corresponds to
.

An algorithm given in Kovacic (1986) determines if a given (not necessarily Fuchsian) second-order homogeneous linear differential equation with rational coefficients has solutions expressible in finite terms (Liouvillean solutions). The algorithm returns a list of solutions if they exist.
For applications of Kovacic’s algorithm in spatio-temporal dynamics see Rod and Sleeman (1995).