On the Voros coefficient for the Whittaker equation with a large parameter -- some progress around Sato's conjecture in exact WKB analysis (Q533377)

The authors study the Whittaker equation \[ \{-d^2/dx^2+ \eta^2(1/4- \alpha/x+ \eta^{-2}\beta/x^2)\}\psi= 0, \] with a large parameter \(\eta\), from the viewpoint of exact WKB anlysis. Here, \(\alpha\neq 0\) and \(\beta\) are complex constants. The main result is an explicit formula of the Voros coefficient \(V\) of the Whittaker equation in terms of Bernoulli numbers (Theorem 2.1), which they call Sato's conjecture. The main result is proved by obtaining a difference equation in \(\eta\) for \(V\) and by solving it. The explicit form of the Borel transform \(V_B\) of \(V\) is also obtained (Theorem 3.1). In the remaining part of the paper, from the above results, they derive some important analytic properties of the Borel transforms \(\psi_{\pm,B}(x, y)\) of the WKB solutions \(\psi_\pm(x,\eta)\) of the Whittaker equation. For example, (i) alien derivatives of \(\psi_{\pm,B}(x, y)\) at their singular poins in \(y\) are obtained (Theorem 4.1); (ii) the Stokes automorphism at \(\arg\alpha= \pi/2\) is determined (Theorem 4.2); and (iii) an explicit form of the Borel sum of \(V_B\) is given for \(\arg\alpha=\pi/2-\varepsilon\) or for \(\arg\alpha= \pi/2+\varepsilon\) (Theorem 4.3), \(\varepsilon\) being a small positive constant.