On the zeros of Jonquière's function with a large complex parameter (Q1076838)

Let \(C^*\) denote the complex z-plane cut from 1 to \(\infty\) along the positive real axis, and let \(\kappa =\kappa_ 0+i\kappa_ 1\) be a complex number. Let \(f_{\kappa}\) denote the analytic function on \(C^*\) whose representation in \(| z| <1\) is \(\sum n^{\kappa}z^ n\), \(n\geq 1\). The authors obtain useful information on the number and distribution of the zeros of \(f_{\kappa}\) when \(\kappa_ 0\) is large and positive. Making essential use of the Lindelöf-Wirtinger expansion of \(f_{\kappa}(z):\) \[ (*)\quad f_{\kappa}(z)=\Gamma (\kappa +1)\sum_{-\infty <m<\infty}((2m+1)\pi i+\log (-1/z))^{-1-\kappa}\quad (\kappa_ 0>0), \] they show that the zeros of \(f_{\kappa}\) can be approximated by those of the function obtained by taking in (*) only those terms with \(m=0\) and \(m=-1\). In particular, for \(\kappa =\kappa_ 0\) real and positive, it was known previously that \(f_{\kappa}\) has exactly \(k+1\) zeros, where \(k<\kappa \leq k+1\), and that these zeros are real and nonpositive. Theorem 1 of this paper shows that if \(n(\kappa;x_ 1,x_ 2)\) is the number of zeros of \(f_{\kappa}\) in \([-x_ 2,-x_ 1]\), then the limit, as \(\kappa\) approaches infinity through positive values, of \((k+1)^{- 1}n(\kappa;x_ 1,x_ 2)\) is \(h(x_ 2)-h(x_ 1)\), where \(h(x)=(1/\pi)\) arccot \((\pi^{-1} \log (1/x))\).