A curious \(q\)-analogue of Hermite polynomials (Q616436): Difference between revisions

The classical Hermite polynomials \(H_n(x,s)\) may be defined by the recurrence relation \(H_{n+1}(x,s)=xH_n(x,s)-nsH_{n-1}(x,s)\), with \(H_0=1\) and \(H_{-1}=0\). Their properties include: \(H_n(x,s)=(x-s\mathcal D)^n\cdot1\), where \(\mathcal D\) is the differentiation operator; they have an explicit formula; they are orthogonal; if \(p_n(z,x,s)=H_n(z-x,-s)\) (rescaled Hermite polynomials) and \(\mathcal F\) is the linear functional on polynomials in \(z\) defined by \(\mathcal F(p_n(z,x,s))=\delta_{n,0}\), then the moments \(\mathcal F(z^n)\) are again Hermite polynomials, \(\mathcal F(z^n)=H_n(x,s)\); this is equivalent to saying that the generating function of the \(H_n(x,s)\) has a certain continued fraction expansion. Two important classes of orthogonal \(q\)-analogues of \(H_n(x,s)\) are the continuous \(q\)-Hermite polynomials and the discrete \(q\)-Hermite polynomials I. Both are special cases of the Al-Salam--Chihara polynomials \(P_n(x;a,b,c)\) which satisfy the recurrence relation \(P_{n+1}(x;a,b,c)=(x-aq^n)P_n(x;a,b,c)-(c+bq^{n+1})[n]_qP_{n-1}(x;a,b,c)\), with \(P_{-1}=0\) and \(P_0=1\). Let \(\mathcal F_{a,b,c}\) be the (unique) linear functional on polynomials in \(z\) satisfying \(\mathcal F_{a,b,c}(P_n(z;a,b,c))=\delta_{n,0}\). Then the continuous \(q\)-Hermite polynomials are \(\tilde{H}_n(x,s|q)=P_n(x;0,0,s)\), and are also moments \(\tilde{H}_n(x,s|q)=\mathcal F_{x,-s,0}(z^n)\), while the discrete \(q\)-Hermite polynomials I are \(\tilde{h}_n(x,s;q)=P_n(x;0,(1-q)s,0)\) and the discrete \(q\)-Hermite polynomials II are \(\tilde{h}_n(x,q)=(-i)^n\tilde{h}_n(ix,1;q^{-1})\). In the paper under review, the authors introduce a new \(q\)-analogue of Hermite polynomials, \(H_n(x,s|q)=\mathcal F_{x,0,-s}(z^n)\). In contrast to \(\tilde{H}_n(x,s|q)\), the new \(q\)-Hermite polynomials are not orthogonal with an explicit measure and do not have an explicit three-term recurrence relation. Some of their interesting properties are: they satisfy an analogue of the operator formula (Thm 5); their coefficients appear in the inverse matrix of the coefficients in \(\tilde{H}_n(x,s|q)\) (Thm 6); they have simple connection coefficients with \(q\)-Lucas and \(q\)-Fibonacci polynomials (Thm 12), which gives a generalization of the Touchard-Riordan formula; their generating function has a relation with \(h_n(x,s;q)\), a rescaled version of \(\tilde{h}_n(x,q)\) (Eq. (4.21)).