Evelyn Boyd

On Laguerre Series in the Complex Domain
Yale University

Summary

The purpose of this paper is to study series of the form

where the L_n^(α)(z) are Laguerre polynomials of the complex variable z and may be defined by

It is shown that the domain of convergence of the series is the interior of a parabola and that the series represents an analytic function in this domain. We introduce the differential operator

and establish some properties of the operator δ_z and functions of δ_z which we find useful later in the discussion of singularities of the function f(z) defined by the Laguerre series on the boundary of the domain of convergence of the series under various assumptions on the coefficients f_n. We give several conditions which will make the domain of convergence of the series the natural domain of existence of f(z). Also, we give two examples of factor sequences {a_n} which are such that if

then this series converges in a domain at least as large as the domain of convergence of the series

and the function F(z) can be continued analytically along any finite path along which f(z) can be so continued.

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