The real zeros of the derivatives of cylinder functions of negative order (Q1582336)

The authors study the real \(x\)-zeros of the derivative \(C_\nu'(x)\) of the cylinder function \(C_\nu(x)= C_\nu(x,\alpha) =\cos \alpha J\nu(x)-\sin \alpha Y\nu(x)\) for \(\nu<0\). For fixed \(\alpha\), \(0\leq\alpha<\pi\) and \(n= 1,2,\dots\) the authors show the existence of a number \(\nu_n\) in the interval \(-n+ \alpha/ \pi-1< \nu<- n+\alpha/ \pi\) such that the first positive zero of \(C_\nu'(x)\) occurs after the first positive zero of \(C_\nu(x)\) when \(-n-1+ \alpha/ \pi<\nu <\nu_n\) and before the first positive zero of \(C_\nu(x)\) when \(\nu_n\leq \nu<-n +\alpha/ \pi\). In case \(\nu_n< \nu<-n -\alpha/ \pi\), \(C_\nu'(x)\) has two zeros which precede the first positive zero of \(C_\nu (x,\alpha)\). For \(\nu=\nu_n\), \(C_\nu'(-\nu)\) is a double zero. The first decreasing and the second is increasing as \(\nu\) increases. Moreover, in the case \(\alpha=0\), for \(\nu_1= -1.117\dots\leq\nu<-1\), \(J_\nu'(x)\) has exclusively real zeros. The present results and earlier ones on the zeros of \(J_\nu''(x)\), \(J_\nu'''(x)\) lead to some conjectures on the zeros of \(J_\nu^{(n)} (x)\).