8.17 Incomplete Beta Functions8.19 Generalized Exponential Integral

§8.18 Asymptotic Expansions of \mathop{I_{{x}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(a,b\right)

Contents

§8.18(i) Large Parameters, Fixed x

If b and x are fixed, with b>0 and 0<x<1, then as a\to\infty

8.18.1 \mathop{I_{{x}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(a,b\right)={\mathop{\Gamma\/}\nolimits\!\left(a+b\right)x^{a}(1-x)^{{b-1}}}\*\left(\sum _{{k=0}}^{{n-1}}\frac{1}{\mathop{\Gamma\/}\nolimits\!\left(a+k+1\right)\mathop{\Gamma\/}\nolimits\!\left(b-k\right)}\left(\frac{x}{1-x}\right)^{k}+\mathop{O\/}\nolimits\!\left(\frac{1}{\mathop{\Gamma\/}\nolimits\!\left(a+n+1\right)}\right)\right),

for each n=0,1,2,\dots. If b=1,2,3,\dots and n\geq b, then the \mathop{O\/}\nolimits-term can be omitted and the result is exact.

If b\to\infty and a and x are fixed, with a>0 and 0<x<1, then (8.18.1), with a and b interchanged and x replaced by 1-x, can be combined with (8.17.4).

§8.18(ii) Large Parameters: Uniform Asymptotic Expansions

Symmetric Case

Let

8.18.8 x_{0}=a/(a+b).

Then as a+b\to\infty,

8.18.9 \mathop{I_{{x}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(a,b\right)\sim\tfrac{1}{2}\mathop{\mathrm{erfc}\/}\nolimits\!\left(-\eta\sqrt{b/2}\right)+\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi(a+b)}}\*\left(\frac{x}{x_{0}}\right)^{a}\left(\frac{1-x}{1-x_{0}}\right)^{b}\sum _{{k=0}}^{\infty}\frac{(-1)^{k}c_{k}(\eta)}{(a+b)^{k}},

uniformly for x\in(0,1) and a/(a+b), b/(a+b)\in[\delta,1-\delta], where \delta again denotes an arbitrary small positive constant. For \mathop{\mathrm{erfc}\/}\nolimits see §7.2(i). Also,

8.18.10 -\tfrac{1}{2}\eta^{2}=x_{0}\mathop{\ln\/}\nolimits\!\left(\frac{x}{x_{0}}\right)+(1-x_{0})\mathop{\ln\/}\nolimits\!\left(\frac{1-x}{1-x_{0}}\right),

with \eta/(x-x_{0})>0, and

8.18.11 c_{0}(\eta)=\frac{1}{\eta}-\frac{\sqrt{x_{0}(1-x_{0})}}{x-x_{0}},

with limiting value

8.18.12 c_{0}(0)=\frac{1-2x_{0}}{3\sqrt{x_{0}(1-x_{0})}}.

For this result, and for higher coefficients c_{k}(\eta) see Temme (1996b, §11.3.3.2). All of the c_{k}(\eta) are analytic at \eta=0.

General Case

Let \widetilde{\Gamma}(z) denote the scaled gamma function

8.18.13 \widetilde{\Gamma}(z)=(2\pi)^{{-1/2}}e^{z}z^{{(1/2)-z}}\mathop{\Gamma\/}\nolimits\!\left(z\right),

\mu=b/a, and x_{0} again be as in (8.18.8). Then as a\to\infty

8.18.14 \mathop{I_{{x}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(a,b\right)\sim\mathop{Q\/}\nolimits\!\left(b,a\zeta\right)-\frac{(2\pi b)^{{-1/2}}}{\widetilde{\Gamma}(b)}\left(\frac{x}{x_{0}}\right)^{a}\left(\frac{1-x}{1-x_{0}}\right)^{b}\sum _{{k=0}}^{\infty}\frac{h_{k}(\zeta,\mu)}{a^{k}},

uniformly for b\in(0,\infty) and x\in(0,1). Here

8.18.15 \mu\mathop{\ln\/}\nolimits\zeta-\zeta=\mathop{\ln\/}\nolimits x+\mu\mathop{\ln\/}\nolimits\!\left(1-x\right)+(1+\mu)\mathop{\ln\/}\nolimits\!\left(1+\mu\right)-\mu,

with (\zeta-\mu)/(x_{0}-x)>0, and

8.18.16 h_{0}(\zeta,\mu)=\mu\left(\frac{1}{\zeta-\mu}-\frac{(1+\mu)^{{-3/2}}}{x_{0}-x}\right),

with limiting value

8.18.17 h_{0}(\mu,\mu)=\frac{1}{3}\left(\frac{1-\mu}{\sqrt{1+\mu}}-1\right).

For this result and higher coefficients h_{k}(\zeta,\mu) see Temme (1996b, §11.3.3.3). All of the h_{k}(\zeta,\mu) are analytic at \zeta=\mu (corresponding to x=x_{0}).

Inverse Function

For asymptotic expansions for large values of a and/or b of the x-solution of the equation

8.18.18 \mathop{I_{{x}}\/}\nolimits\!\left(a,b\right)=p, 0\leq p\leq 1,

see Temme (1992b).