On algebraic solutions of the fifth Painlevé equation (Q1768978)

The authors show that the algebraic solutions \(w(z)\) of the classical fifth Painlevé equation \(P_5\) are either rational (if \(\delta\neq0\)) or rational in \(\sqrt{z}\) (if \(\delta=0\) and \(\gamma\neq0\)). In the latter case, the algebraic solutions come from the rational solutions of the third Painlevé equation \(P_3\). To prove this assertion, the authors observe that any algebraic solution to \(P_5\) is rational in \(z^{1/s}\), \(s\in{\mathbb N}\), since all its movable singularities are single-valued poles. For \(\delta\neq0\), using the change of the independent variable \(z=\tau^s\), they examine the necessary conditions of existence of a rational in \(\tau\) solution \(w=P(\tau)/Q(\tau)\) with irreducible polynomials \(P(\tau),\;Q(\tau)\) of degree \(p\) and \(q\), respectively. Observing that either \(q=p\) or \(q=p+s\), the authors show that the Painlevé function has a power-like expansion w.r.t. \(\tau^s=z\) at infinity and therefore is rational in \(z\). In the case \(\delta=0\), \(\gamma\neq0\), the assertion follows from a similar theorem for \(P_3\) using an explicit transformation formula between \(P_3\) and \(P_5\) \((\delta=0)\). Moreover, the authors discuss some kinds of local behavior of the Painlevé function at its fixed singularities, e.g., they present the constraints on the parameter values and the initial data which are necessary and sufficient for the Painlevé function to be holomorphic or meromorphic at the origin. They also discuss constraints of this type for infinity.