Inequalities and monotonicity of ratios for generalized hypergeometric function (Q1040874)

Let \[ {_{q+1}F_q} \left( (a_{q+1}); (b_q) ;z \right) :=\sum^{\infty}_{n=0} \frac{(a_1)_{n} (a_2)_{n} (a_3)_{n} \cdots (a_{q+1})_{n}} {(b_1)_{n} (b_2)_{n} \cdots (b_q)_{n}}\;\frac{z^n}{{n!}} \] denote the generalized hypergeometric function. For \(q=2\) we have the two-sided inequality \[ \frac{1}{1+bx/c} < {_{2}F_1} \left( 1, b; c ;-x \right) < \frac{c(c+1)+(c-b)x}{c(c+1)+c(b+1)x}<1 \tag{1} \] when \(x>0\) and \(c>b>1\). These inequalities can be derived using Gauss continued fractions or Padé approximation of Stieltjes functions. The author notes that the lower bound in (1) is asymptotically precise at \(x=0\) and also coincides with \({_{2}F_1}(1,b;c;-x)\) at \(x=\infty\), but the same is not true for the upper bound which reduces to \((c-b)/[c(b+1)]\) at \(x=\infty\). The author provides a generalized Stieltjes representation of \({_{q+1}F_q} ((a_{q+1});(b_q);z)\) and uses it to prove the following result. Theorem 1. Suppose \(\delta>0\), \(b_k>a_k>0\), \(k=1,\dots,q\). The function \[ f\left(\sigma, (a_{q}); (b_q);\delta ;x\right)= \frac{{_{q+1}F_q} \left(\sigma, (a_{q})+\delta; (b_q)+\delta ;-x \right)}{{_{q+1}F_q} \left(\sigma, (a_{q}); (b_q) ;-x \right)} \] is monotone decreasing if \(\sigma>0\) and monotone increasing if \(\sigma< 0\) for all \(x>-1\). This leads to some nice bounds for \({_{q+1}F_q} \left(\sigma, (a_{q}); (b_q) ;-x \right)\) as follows. Theorem 2. For \(b_k>a_k>0\), \(k=1,\dotsc,q\), \(x>-1\) and \(\sigma \geq 1\) the inequality \[ \frac{1}{\left(1+x \prod_{i=1}^{q}(a_i/b_i)\right)^{\sigma}}< {_{q+1}F_q} \left(\sigma, (a_{q}); (b_q) ;-x \right) \tag{2} \] holds true. Inequality (2) was previously obtained by \textit{Y. L. Luke} [J. Approximation Theory 5, 41--65 (1972; Zbl 0225.33004)], for \(x>0\) and \(\sigma >0\), using a different method. Theorem 3. For \(b_k>a_k>1\), \(k=1,\dots,q\), \(x>0\) and \(0 < \sigma \leq 1\) the inequality \[ {_{q+1}F_q} \left(\sigma, (a_{q}); (b_q) ;-x \right)<\frac{1}{\left(1+x \prod_{i=1}^{q}[(a_i-1)/(b_i-1)]\right)^{\sigma}} \] holds true. These results can be combined to provide a two-sided inequality in the case \(\sigma=1\), generalizing (1), for which the lower bound is asymptotically precise at \(x=0\), the upper bound is asymptotically precise at \(x=\infty\) and both agree with values of \({_{q+1}F_q}(1, (a_{q}); (b_q) ;-x)\) at the endpoints of \([0, \infty]\). The paper also includes another method to deduce the second Thomae relation for \({_{3}F_2}(1)\), a derivation of an integral representation of \({_{4}F_3}(x)\) in terms of the Appell function \({F_3}\), and some related open questions and conjectures.