After division by , the coefficients are and . At , and are analytic functions, so is a regular singular point. Its indicial equation is . There are no other finite singular points of a differential equation. At infinity the regular singular point criterion for a second-order equation would require , but ; hence infinity is an irregular singular point.
Substituting reduces the equation to , so
A linearly independent pair is and . Their Wronskian is . The second has a removable singularity at and value , whereas the first has a simple pole, agreeing with the two characteristic exponents at a regular singular point, . The integer difference does not require a logarithm. At infinity has an essential singularity, consistent with the irregular singular point; the existence of the simpler solution does not make infinity regular.
For
is an ordinary point when and are analytic there, and a singular point otherwise. A singular point is regular singular when and are analytic there. These are the ordinary-point and regular-singular criteria.
For Kummer's equation, substitute
Equating the coefficient of gives
Taking ,
where is the rising factorial. Thus
Putting and simplifying gives
Therefore
For nonintegral , the powers and at zero are distinct, so these solutions are linearly independent.
When , both solutions tend to . Differentiate their difference with respect to . Writing for derivatives with respect to the second and third arguments,
Hence at one may take
as two linearly independent solutions. Their independence follows from the logarithmic term in the second solution.
The point is a regular singular point when it is singular but
extend holomorphically to .
For a normalized equation
is an ordinary point when are analytic there. It is a regular singular point when and are analytic there. These are the ordinary point criterion for a second-order equation and regular singular point criterion for a second-order equation.
Here
so is regular singular. Seek a power-series solution of a differential equation
Equating the coefficient of gives
and hence
Therefore
The series terminates exactly when is a nonnegative integer: the factor with then makes . Thus the polynomial solutions occur for
After division by , the equation becomes
The regular singular point criterion for a second-order equation would require and to be analytic at zero. The second expression is , so the criterion fails:
The Papperitz symbol
describes the two-dimensional solution space of a second-order homogeneous Fuchsian differential equation on the Riemann sphere with exactly three regular singular points . Near , its two independent Frobenius behaviours are locally
subject to logarithmic modifications in resonant cases. The six characteristic exponents obey the Fuchs relation
For the Gauss hypergeometric equation, the exponents at infinity are and . Put . Transforming the Papperitz symbol from to shows that
and
are local solutions near , with respective leading behaviours and . When , these behaviours are distinct and the two solutions are linearly independent. They therefore form a basis of the solution space on any simply connected common domain with compatible branch choices.
The solution normalized at zero can be analytically continued into that domain. Since it solves the same second-order equation, it must be a constant linear combination of the basis at infinity:
The constants depend on and the branch convention, but not on . This is the hypergeometric connection formula at infinity.
After division by , the coefficient functions are
Both and are analytic at zero, so the regular singular point criterion for a second-order equation shows that is regular singular. Substitution of into the leading terms gives the indicial equation
The exponent is repeated. Directly substituting gives
Thus determines the entire power series, so there is only one such solution up to scale. The logarithmic solution from a repeated Frobenius exponent predicts
so its leading nonanalytic term is proportional to .
For the contour ansatz, differentiation under the integral and one integration by parts give
The integral vanishes when
whose solution is the Laguerre contour-integral amplitude
The contour and branches must make single-valued along the traversed path and must kill the endpoint term
Now suppose is nonintegral. Near , is integrable and the endpoint factor is . We may therefore choose
a finite loop based at the branch point and avoiding except by encirclement. A second choice is
along one bank of the negative real axis, with a consistent branch. At , kills the algebraic endpoint factor because .
The integral is analytic in because its contour is finite, and it is a nonzero solution. By uniqueness of the analytic local solution, it is a constant multiple of . This is the Finite Laguerre contour solution construction.
For
a finite point is an ordinary point exactly when and are holomorphic there. It is a regular singular point exactly when
are holomorphic at .
Put and . Direct differentiation gives
so the transformed equation is
Consequently is ordinary precisely when
are holomorphic at . It is a regular singular point at infinity precisely when and are holomorphic functions of near infinity.
If zero and infinity are regular singular and every nonzero finite point is ordinary, the Laurent series of and can contain only the terms compatible with both endpoint bounds. Hence
for constants . The equation is a Cauchy-Euler differential equation. Its indicial equation is
For distinct roots , the general solution on a domain with a chosen logarithm branch is
For a repeated root , the general solution of an Euler-Cauchy equation is
Finally require infinity to be ordinary. In the transformed equation its coefficients become
Both are holomorphic at zero exactly when and . Thus the further restriction is