Approximate closed-form formulas for the zeros of the Bessel polynomials (Q1925569)

Summary: We find approximate expressions \(\tilde{x}(k, n, a)\) and \(\tilde{y}(k, n, a)\) for the real and imaginary parts of the \(k\)-th zero \(z_k = x_k + iy_k\) of the Bessel polynomial \(y_n(x; a)\). To obtain these closed-form formulas, we use the fact that the points of well-defined curves in the complex plane are limit points of the zeros of the normalized Bessel polynomials. Thus, these zeros are first computed numerically through an implementation of the electrostatic interpretation formulas, and, then, a fit to the real and imaginary parts as functions of \(k, n\) and \(a\) is obtained. It is shown that the resulting complex numbers \(\tilde{x}(k, n, a) + i\tilde{y}(k, n, a)\) are \(O(1/n^2)\)-convergent to \(z_k\) for fixed \(k\).