Zeros of hypergeometric functions in the p-adic setting

Abstract: Let

p

be an odd prime and

m a t h b b F_{p}

be the finite field with

p

elements. McCarthy cite{mccarthy-pacific} initiated a study of hypergeometric functions in the

p

-adic setting. This function can be understood as

p

-adic analogue of Gauss' hypergeometric function, and also some kind of extension of Greene's hypergeometric function over

m a t h b b F_{p}

. In this paper we investigate values of two generic families of McCarthy's hypergeometric functions denoted by

_{n} G_{n} (t)

, and

_{n} w i d e t i l d e G_{n} (t)

for

n g e q 3

, and

t i n m a t h b b F_{p}

. The values of the function

_{n} G_{n} (t)

certainly depend on whether

t

is

n

-th power residue modulo

p

or not. Similarly, the values of the function

_{n} w i d e t i l d e G_{n} (t)

rely on the incongruent modulo

p

solutions of

y^{n} - y^{n - 1} + f r a c (n - 1)^{n - 1} t n^{n} e q u i v 0 p m o d p

. These results generalize special cases of

p

-adic analogues of Whipple's theorem and Dixon's theorem of classical hypergeometric series. We examine zeros of the functions

_{n} G_{n} (t)

, and

_{n} w i d e t i l d e G_{n} (t)

over

m a t h b b F_{p}

. Moreover, we look into the values of

t

for which

_{n} G_{n} (t) = 0

for infinitely many primes. For example, we show that there are infinitely many primes for which

_{2 k} G_{2 k} (- 1) = 0

. In contrast, for

t e q 0

there is no prime for which

_{2 k} w i d e t i l d e G_{2 k} (t) = 0

.

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