We formulate some conjectures about the precise determination of the monodromy groups of certain rigid local systems on $\mathbb{A}^{1}$ whose monodromy groups are known, by results of Kubert, to be finite. We prove some of them.

This paper concerns the problem of algebraic differential independence of the gamma function and ${\mathcal{L}}$-functions in the extended Selberg class. We prove that the two kinds of functions cannot satisfy a class of algebraic differential equations with functional coefficients that are linked to the zeros of the ${\mathcal{L}}$-function in a domain $D:=\{z:0<\text{Re}\,z<\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}_{0}\}$ for a positive constant $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}_{0}$.

We generalise a result of Hilbert which asserts that the Riemann zeta-function ${\it\zeta}(s)$ is hypertranscendental over $\mathbb{C}(s)$. Let ${\it\pi}$ be any irreducible cuspidal automorphic representation of $\text{GL}_{m}(\mathbb{A}_{\mathbb{Q}})$ with unitary central character. We establish a certain type of functional difference–differential independence for the associated $L$-function $L(s,{\it\pi})$. This result implies algebraic difference–differential independence of $L(s,{\it\pi})$ over $\mathbb{C}(s)$ (and more strongly, over a certain field ${\mathcal{F}}_{s}$ which contains $\mathbb{C}(s)$). In particular, $L(s,{\it\pi})$ is hypertranscendental over $\mathbb{C}(s)$. We also extend a result of Ostrowski on the hypertranscendence of ordinary Dirichlet series.

We obtain lower bounds for the growth of solutions of higher order linear differential equations, with coefficients analytic in the unit disc of the complex plane, by localising the equations via conformal maps and applying known results for the unit disc. As an example, we study equations in which the coefficients have a certain explicit exponential growth at one point on the boundary of the unit disc and consider the iterated $M$-order of solutions.

The Brück conjecture states that if a nonconstant entire function $f$ with hyper-order ${\it\sigma}_{2}(f)\in [0,+\infty )\setminus \mathbb{N}$ shares one finite value $a$ (counting multiplicities) with its derivative $f^{\prime }$, then $f^{\prime }-a=c(f-a)$, where $c$ is a nonzero constant. The conjecture has been established for entire functions with order ${\it\sigma}(f)<+\infty$ and hyper-order ${\it\sigma}_{2}(f)<{\textstyle \frac{1}{2}}$. The purpose of this paper is to prove the Brück conjecture for the case ${\it\sigma}_{2}(f)=\frac{1}{2}$ by studying the infinite hyper-order solutions of the linear differential equations $f^{(k)}+A(z)f=Q(z)$. The shared value $a$ is extended to be a ‘small’ function with respect to the entire function $f$.

A 𝔻-semiclassical weight is one which satisfies a particular linear, first-order homogeneous equation in a divided-difference operator 𝔻. It is known that the system of polynomials, orthogonal with respect to this weight, and the associated functions satisfy a linear, first-order homogeneous matrix equation in the divided-difference operator termed the spectral equation. Attached to the spectral equation is a structure which constitutes a number of relations such as those arising from compatibility with the three-term recurrence relation. Here this structure is elucidated in the general case of quadratic lattices. The simplest examples of the 𝔻-semiclassical orthogonal polynomial systems are precisely those in the Askey table of hypergeometric and basic hypergeometric orthogonal polynomials. However within the 𝔻-semiclassical class it is entirely natural to define a generalization of the Askey table weights which involve a deformation with respect to new deformation variables. We completely construct the analogous structures arising from such deformations and their relations with the other elements of the theory. As an example we treat the first nontrivial deformation of the Askey–Wilson orthogonal polynomial system defined by the q-quadratic divided-difference operator, the Askey–Wilson operator, and derive the coupled first-order divided-difference equations characterizing its evolution in the deformation variable. We show that this system is a member of a sequence of classical solutions to the q-Painlevé system.

In this note, we prove a uniqueness theorem for finite-order meromorphic solutions to a class of difference equations of Malmquist type. Such solutions $f$ are uniquely determined by their poles and the zeros of $f-e_{j}$ (counting multiplicities) for two finite complex numbers $e_{1}\neq e_{2}$.

We extend and apply the Galois theory of linear differential equations equipped with the action of an endomorphism. The Galois groups in this Galois theory are difference algebraic groups, and we use structure theorems for these groups to characterize the possible difference algebraic relations among solutions of linear differential equations. This yields tools to show that certain special functions are difference transcendent. One of our main results is a characterization of discrete integrability of linear differential equations with almost simple usual Galois group, based on a structure theorem for the Zariski dense difference algebraic subgroups of almost simple algebraic groups, which is a schematic version, in characteristic zero, of a result due to Z. Chatzidakis, E. Hrushovski, and Y. Peterzil.

Let $f$ be a transcendental meromorphic function with at least one direct tract. In this note, we investigate the structure of the escaping set which is in the same direct tract. We also give a theorem about the slow escaping set.

If A(z) belongs to the Bergman space , then the differential equation f″+A(z)f=0 is Blaschke-oscillatory, meaning that the zero sequence of every nontrivial solution satisfies the Blaschke condition. Conversely, if A(z) is analytic in the unit disc such that the differential equation is Blaschke-oscillatory, then A(z) almost belongs to . It is demonstrated that certain “nice” Blaschke sequences can be zero sequences of solutions in both cases when A ∈ or A ∉ . In addition, no condition regarding only the number of zeros of solutions is sufficient to guarantee that A ∈ .

We consider solutions to the algebraic differential equation $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}f^nf'+Q_d(z,f)=u(z)e^{v(z)}$, where $Q_d(z,f)$ is a differential polynomial in $f$ of degree $d$ with rational function coefficients, $u$ is a nonzero rational function and $v$ is a nonconstant polynomial. In this paper, we prove that if $n\ge d+1$ and if it admits a meromorphic solution $f$ with finitely many poles, then

$$\begin{equation*} f(z)=s(z)e^{v(z)/(n+1)} \quad \mbox {and}\quad Q_d(z,f)\equiv 0. \end{equation*}$$

$f$

$f'p_k(f)+q_m(f)$

$\alpha $

$p_k(f), q_m(f)$

$f$

$k$

$m$

$k\ge m+1$

We prove that if $y''=f(y,y',t,\alpha ,\beta ,\ldots)$ is a generic Painlevé equation from among the classes II, IV and V, and if $y_1,\ldots,y_n$ are distinct solutions, then $\mathrm{tr.deg}(\mathbb{C}(t)(y_1,y'_1,\ldots,y_n,y'_n)/\mathbb{C}(t))=2n$. (This was proved by Nishioka for the single equation $P_{{\rm I}}$.) For generic Painlevé III and VI, we have a slightly weaker result: $\omega $-categoricity (in the sense of model theory) of the solution space, as described below. The results confirm old beliefs about the Painlevé transcendents.

Consider a pseudogroup on $( \mathbb{C} , 0)$ generated by two local diffeomorphisms having analytic conjugacy classes a priori fixed in $\mathrm{Diff} \hspace{0.167em} ( \mathbb{C} , 0)$. We show that a generic pseudogroup as above is such that every point has a (possibly trivial) cyclic stabilizer. It also follows that these generic groups possess infinitely many hyperbolic orbits. This result possesses several applications to the topology of leaves of foliations, and we shall explicitly describe the case of nilpotent foliations associated to Arnold’s singularities of type ${A}^{2n+ 1} $.

We deal with aspects of direct and inverse problems in parameterized Picard–Vessiot (PPV) theory. It is known that, for certain fields, a linear differential algebraic group (LDAG) $G$ is a PPV Galois group over these fields if and only if $G$ contains a Kolchin-dense finitely generated group. We show that, for a class of LDAGs $G$, including unipotent groups, $G$ is such a group if and only if it has differential type $0$. We give a procedure to determine if a parameterized linear differential equation has a PPV Galois group in this class and show how one can calculate the PPV Galois group of a parameterized linear differential equation if its Galois group has differential type $0$.

We show that generically a pseudogroup generated by holomorphic diffeomorphisms defined about $0\in \mathbb{C} $ is free in the sense of pseudogroups even if the class of conjugacy of the generators is fixed. This result has a number of consequences on the topology of leaves for a (singular) holomorphic foliation defined on a neighborhood of an invariant curve. In particular, in the classical and simplest case arising from local nilpotent foliations possessing a unique separatrix which is given by a cusp of the form $\{ {y}^{2} - {x}^{2n+ 1} = 0\} $, our results allow us to settle the problem of showing that a generic foliation possesses only countably many non-simply connected leaves.

Katz’s middle convolution algorithm provides a description of rigid connections on ℙ1 with regular singularities. We extend the algorithm by adding the Fourier transform to it. The extended algorithm provides a description of rigid connections with arbitrary singularities.

New estimates are obtained for the maximum modulus of the generalized logarithmic derivatives f(k)/f(j), where f is analytic and of finite order of growth in the unit disc, and k and j are integers satisfying k>j≥0. These estimates are stated in terms of a fixed (Lindelöf) proximate order of f and are valid outside a possible exceptional set of arbitrarily small upper density. The results obtained are then used to study the growth of solutions of linear differential equations in the unit disc. Examples are given to show that all of the results are sharp.

This paper deals with criteria of algebraic independence for the derivatives of solutions of diagonal difference systems. The key idea consists in deriving from the commutativity of the differentiation and difference operators a sequence of iterated extensions of the original difference module, thereby setting the problem in the framework of difference Galois theory and finally reducing it to an exercise in linear algebra on the group of divisors of the involved elliptic curve or torus.