Computer-assisted reduction of second order linear differential equations (Q1202240)

In order to explore the possibilities of representing its solutions in terms of special functions, and using factorization techniques, a process is defined to decide whether a second order linear differential equation with polynomial coefficients can be brought to the hypergeometric or the confluent hypergeometric equation by a rational change of variable. In the first case, an upper bound has to be provided for the degree of the numerator of the rational function which defines the change of variable.