Difference equations for generalized Meixner polynomials (Q1332223)

The paper, dedicated to Richard Askey, deals with the solution to the problem posed by Askey and Erice (1990). He suggested to define generalized Meixner polynomials by adding a point mass at zero to the classical discrete weight function and then obtaining difference equations satisfied by these polynomials which might turn out to be of finite order for certain values of the parameters. This might explain results found by the reviewer and his uncle in the case of generalized Laguerre polynomials. Earlier results by the first author and the reviewer showed that difference equations of the desired form for generalized Charlier polynomials turn out to be of infinite order for all values of the parameter(s). In the present paper the authors obtain difference operators for the generalized Meixner polynomials with \(n\)-independent polynomial coefficients. Moreover, they prove that these difference operators are of infinite order for all values of the parameters. Furthermore, they use a well-known method to derive a second order difference equation with \(n\)- dependent polynomial coefficients.