An approximation for zero-balanced Appell function \(F_{1}\) near (1,1) (Q2465889)

The main result may be stated as follows. Let \(a\), \(b_1\), \(b_2\) be positive constants. Then, as \(x\) and \(y\) tend towards 1 on the interval \((0,1)\), \[ {\Gamma(a)\Gamma(b_1+ b_2)\over \Gamma(a+ b_1+ b_2)} F_1[a; b_1, b_2; a+ b_1+ b_2; x, y] \] is asymptotically equal to \[ \ln{1\over 1-x}+ \gamma(a, b_1+ b_2)+ {b_2(y- x)\over (b_1+ b_2)(1- x)}{_3F_2} \Biggl[\begin{matrix} 1,1,b_2+ 1\\ 2,b_1+ b_2+ 1\end{matrix}\,\Biggl|\,{y-x\over 1-x}\Biggr]. \] The remainder is positive and \(O(r\ln(r))\), where \(r= (1- x)b_1+ (1- y)b_2\); moreover, \(\gamma(a, b)= 2\psi(1)- \psi(a)- \psi(b)\), where \(\psi\) is the logarithmic derivative of the gamma function. The result is compared with approximations by Ramanujan for the zero-balanced \({_2F_1}\) and by Carlson and Gustafson for the incomplete elliptic integral of the first kind.