Multivariate Hypergeometric Terms

Abstract: In this 1997 Ph.D. dissertation we prove a piecewise form of the discrete part of Wilf and Zeilberger's 1992 conjecture that a hypergeometric term is proper if and only if it is holonomic. We show that a holonomic hypergeometric term on

Z^{n}

is piecewise proper and we show that without such a qualification the conjecture is false. We call a term piecewise proper if

Z^{n}

can be expressed as the union of a finite number of polyhedral regions (the "pieces") and a set of measure zero (which we define to be a finite union of hyperplanes) such that the restriction of the term to each polyhedral region is proper. We prove a similar result for terms that are not holonomic but honest. We call a term

h

honest if for every vector

v

in

Z^{n}

there exist relatively prime polynomials

A_{v}

and

B_{v}

such that

A_{v} (z) h (z) = B_{v} (z) h (z + v)

except on a set of measure zero. We also give a naive proof of the Ore--Sato Theorem using Gosper's Lemma. We solve an unrelated problem of Cameron by showing that there is a sum-free complete subset of

Z / m Z

that is not symmetric for every sufficiently large modulus

m

, and we show that such a set must have the property that the cardinality of its sum set is greater than the cardinality of its difference set, which makes it a counterexample to a modular version of a conjecture of Conway. A set

S

is said to be sum-free, complete, and symmetric respectively if

| S + S | s u b s e t S^{c}

,

| S + S | s u p s e t S^{c}

, and

S = - S

.

Review text

A multivariate function \(f(z_1,\dots, z_k)= f(z)\) from \(\mathbb{Z}^k\) to be a field \(K\) is a hypergeometric term if for each \(i\in \{1,\dots, k\}\) there exist nonzero polynomials \(A_i(z)\) and \(B_i(z)\) in \(K[z]\) such that \(A_i(z)f(z)= B_i(z) f(z+e_i)\) for all \(z\in \mathbb{Z}^k\). Here \(e_1,\dots, e_k\) is the standard basis for \(\mathbb{Z}^k\). The multivariate hypergeometric terms that arise in practice have the form \[ f(z)= \gamma_1^{z_1}\cdots \gamma_k^{z_k} \frac {C(z) \prod_{i=1}^p (m_i)_{v_i z+r_i}} {D(z) \prod_{j=1}^q (n_j)_{w_j z+s_i}} \] where \(\gamma_1,\dots, \gamma_k\in K\), \(C\) and \(D\) are polynomials in \(K[z]\), the \(v_i\) and \(w_j\) are in \(\mathbb{Z}^k\), the \(r_i\) and \(s_j\) are in \(\mathbb{Z}\), the \(m_i\) and \(n_j\) are in \(K\), and \((m)_r= m(m+1)\cdots (m+r-1)\) is the Pochhammer symbol. The question is: do all hyprgeometric terms have this form? We prove that if \(K\) is an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0, and the hypergeometric term is honest (meaning that each pair \(A_i\) and \(B_i\) above can be taken to be relatively prime), then such an expression for \(f\) exists piecewise (the domain of \(f\) can be expressed as a finite union of hyperplanes and polyhedral regions such that on each polyhedral region, there exists an expression for \(f\) as above). We use this result to settle the discrete part of a conjecture [Invent. Math. 103, 575-634 (1992; Zbl 0739.05007)] of \textit{H. S. Wilf} and \textit{D. Zeilberger} by showing that a holonomic hypergeometric term is piecewise proper, which means roughly that expressions for \(f\) exist on polyhedral regions as above, and in addition we can take \(D(z)=1\). The above results depend on a theorem that gives the structure of rational solutions of a system of equations satisfied by the term ratios of a hypergeometric term. The author was unaware that this theorem (our Theorem 2.8.4) is due to M. Sato and that its two variable case is due to O. Ore. We give a new proof of Sato's theorem using a lemma of Gosper. We solve an unrelated problem of Cameron. A set \(S\) is sum-free if \(S+S\subset S^c\), complete if \(S+S\supset S^c\) and symmetric if \(S=-S\). We solve Cameron's problem by showing that for all sufficiently large moduli \(m\) there exists a sum-free complete set \(S\) in \(\mathbb{Z}/m\mathbb{Z}\) that is not symmetric and we observe that such sets have the property that \(|S+S|>|S-S|\), which is relevant to an erstwhile conjecture of Conway disproved by Marica.

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