From Heun class equations to Painlevé equations (Q2035745)

In this paper, the authors discuss the relationships between two kinds of linear second order ODEs in the complex domain, the Heun class equations and Painlevé equations. Their philosophy is to treat these families of equations in a unified way. This philosophy works especially well for the Heun class equations. They discuss its classification into five supertypes, subdivided into ten types. They also introduce in a unified way deformed Heun class equations, which contain an additional nonlogarithmic singularity. They show that there is a direct relationship between deformed Heun class equations and all Painlevé I--VI equations. In particular, Painlevé equations can be also divided into five supertypes, and subdivided into 10 types. This relationship is not so easy to describe in a completely unified way, because the choice of the ``time variable'' may depend on the type. They describe unified treatments for several possible ``time variables''.