Fast evaluation of the hypergeometric function \(_pF_{p-1}\)(a;b;z) at the singular point \(z = 1\) by means of the Hurwitz zeta function \(\xi(\alpha,s)\). (Q2433012)

The hypergeometric function in the title is defined for \(|z|< 1\) by a power series \(\sum^\infty_{k=0} f_k z^k\) whose coefficients \(f_k\) are products and quotients of gamma functions involving components of the vectors \({\mathbf a}= (a_1,\dots, a_p)\) and \({\mathbf b}= (b_1,\dots, b_{p-1})\), assumed to be nonzero complex numbers not positive integers. When the series converges at \(z= 1\) its sum is denoted by \(_pF_{p-1}({\mathbf a};{\mathbf b})\), a number that appears in many different applications. The authors give a method for fast and highly accurate evaluations of this number by approximating it with a finite linear combination of Hurwitz zeta functions with coefficients expressed in terms of generalized Bernoulli polynomials, with an error that can be made arbitrarily small. The reader should be warned that the notation \(\zeta(\alpha,s)\) for the Hurwitz zeta function in this paper usually appears in the literature as \(\zeta(s,\alpha)\).