Appell hypergeometric expansions of the solutions of the general Heun equation (Q2631949)

This paper presents several expansions of the solution of the Heun equation in terms of Appell generalized hypergeometric functions of two variables of the first kind. \par Some cases where the expansion is expressed in terms of simpler mathematical functions such as incomplete beta function or the Gauss hypergeometric function are identified. Conditions for deriving a finite-sum solution by termination of the series are discussed. \par It is shown that even though the coefficients of the expansion in general obey a four-term recurrence relation there exists certain choices of parameters for which the recurrence relation involve only two terms. And for such cases, the general solution of the Heun equation is constructed in terms of Gauss hypergeometric functions. \par The content of the paper gives an introduction to the subject and it displays the different expansions including expansions in terms of simpler mathematical functions as well as recurrence relations for expansion coefficients. All is discussed in details.