Special functions of the isomonodromy type (Q5937953)

The purpose of this work is to describe a unified approach to special functions, using isomonodromy deformations. Roughly speaking, one considers linear systems of ordinary differential equations whose monodromies are independent of the position of the poles. Typically, the coefficients of such systems involve interesting special functions. The author refers to these functions as ``linear'' if the coefficient matrix is triangular and as ``nonlinear'' otherwise. Examples of functions in the first category are the gamma function and Gauss's hypergeometric function; most of the paper is devoted to a detailed study of how these may be obtained in the author's approach. In the non-linear category one finds the Painlevé transcendents. Thus, if one compares the present method with the group-theoretic approach, an advantage is that Painlevé functions are included in a natural way. On the other hand, group representations give much more powerful tools for deriving formal properties of special functions. In conclusion, though I would not recommend the author's approach as a way to learn about classical special functions, the paper may serve as a nice introduction for people wanting to learn about isomonodromy deformations and their connection with Painlevé functions.