Large-degree asymptotics of rational Painlevé-IV solutions by the isomonodromy method (Q2099826)

In this paper the authors study the asymptotic behaviour of the rational solutions of the fourth Painlevé equation \[ u''=\frac{(u')^2}{2 u} + \frac{3}{2} u^3 +4 x u^2 + 2 (x^2 +1 - 2 \Theta_{\infty}) u - \frac{8 \Theta_0^2}{u} \] for large parameters \(\Theta_0\) and \(\Theta_{\infty}\). In fact, since all the rational solutions of the \(P_{IV}\) equation belong to two distinct family, one of which is expressed in terms of the generalized Hermite polynomials (gH-solutions), while the other is expressed in terms of the generalized Okamoto polynomials (gO-solutions), the authors study asymptotically in parallel these two families. They prove that the rational solutions are aasymptotically approximated by algebraic equilibrium solutions of the following approximating equation (AE) \[ \frac{d^2 \hat{U}}{d \xi^2}=\frac{1}{2 \hat{U}} \left(\frac{d \hat{U}}{d \xi}\right)^2 + \frac{3}{2} \hat{U}^3 + 4 \mu \,\hat{U}^2 + (2 \mu^2 + 4 \kappa) \hat{U} -\frac{8}{\hat{U}} \] when \(\mu\) lies in the exterior of the domain \(D\) where zeros and poles of the rational solutions belong. Contrary, whem \(\mu\) lies in \(D\) the autors show that the rational solutions are asymptotically approximated by nonequilibrium classical elptic function solutions of the equation (AE). They also provide a precise description of the boundary of the domain \(D\). To obtain these result the authors derive two different Riemann-Hilbert representation of the gH-solutions and gO-solutions, respectively. They analize these two problems applying Deift-Zhow steepest-descent method. In addition, as a direct corollary, the authors present approximate locations of the poles and zeros of the rational solutions od the \(P_{IV}\) equation which remarkably agree with numerical plots even for \(\Theta_0, \Theta_{\infty}\) not very large.