Difference equation for the Heckman-Opdam hypergeometric function and its confluent Whittaker limit (Q887332)

The Heckman-Opdam (HO) hypergeometric function that diagonalizes the hyperbolic Calogero-Moser system satisfies a system of difference equations in the spectral variable stemming from the commuting quantum integrals of the rational Ruijsenaars-Schneider system. In the paper under review, the authors focus the attention on the computation of such difference equations for arbitrary root systems. Their approach is based on the fact that, for discrete spectral values on a translated cone of dominant weights, the HO hypergeometric function truncates in terms of the Heckman-Opdam-Jacobi polynomials as pointed out in [\textit{G. Heckman} and \textit{H. Schlichtkrull}, Harmonic analysis and special functions on symmetric spaces. Perspectives in Mathematics. 16. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, Inc. (1994; Zbl 0836.43001)]. This allows to get the desired difference equations in two steps. First, for the discrete spectral values by performing a \(q\rightarrow1\) degeneration on a Pieri formula for Macdonald polynomials given in [\textit{J. F. van Diejen} and \textit{E. Emsiz}, Int. Math. Res. Not. 2011, No. 15, 3560--3574 (2011; Zbl 1236.33037)], and then for arbitrary spectral values by using an analytic argument based on known growth estimates for the HO hypergeometric function that enables to apply the classical Carlson Theorem. Notice that for the root system of type A, a more direct way to recover hypergeometric difference equations from the Macdonald-Ruijsenaars \(q\)-difference operators appears in [\textit{A. Borodin} and \textit{V. Gorin}, Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 68, No. 10, 1774--1844 (2015; Zbl 1325.60076)]. Here, it is proved that the corresponding HO hypergeometric equation can be retrieved as a limt of the Macdonald polynomial. On the other hand, for reduced root systems of arbitrary type the class-one Whittaker function diagonalizing the open quantum Toda chain arises as a confluent hypergeometric degeneration of the HO hypergeometric function.It manifests as a strong-coupling limit and yields the corresponding difference equation for the Whitakker function. For the root system of type A the resulting difference equation in the spectral variable satisfied by the quantum Toda eigenfunction was stated previously by means of the quantum inverse scattering method and by means of an integral representation for the Whittaker function. In the present contribution, the authors get the difference equation for reduced root systems as well as they show how it can be adapted in the case of a non reduced root system and by computing the degeneration pertaining to the Toda-Whittaker level, respectively.