A new hypergeometric transformation of the Rathie-Rakha type (Q619838)

A general transformation involving generalized hypergeometric functions has been recently found by Rathie and Rakha using simple arguments and exploiting the well-known Gauss summation theorem for \(_2F_1\): \[ _2F_1(\alpha,\beta; \gamma; 1) = \frac{\Gamma(\gamma) \Gamma(\gamma-\alpha-\beta)}{\Gamma(\gamma-\alpha) \Gamma(\gamma-\beta)}, \quad \text{Re}(\gamma-\alpha-\beta)>0. \] In this sequel to the work of Rathie and Rakha, it is shown that an additional new hypergeometric transformation formula of the same type can be derived by similar arguments and by appealing to Gauss's second summation theorem: \[ _2F_1 \left( \alpha\beta; \frac{\alpha+\beta+1}{2}; \frac{1}{2} \right) = \frac{\Gamma \left( \frac{1}{2} \right) \Gamma \left( \frac{\alpha+\beta+1}{2} \right)}{\Gamma \left( \frac{\alpha + 1}{2} \right) \Gamma \left( \frac{\beta+1}{2} \right) }. \] In addition, it is shown that the method fails to give similar hypergeometric transformations by using the classical summation theorems of Kummer, Bailey, Watson and Dixon. The reason is that these theorems cannot be (rigorously) applied due to restrictions on the values of the parameters.