Q-exponential
Q-analog in combinatorial mathematics
The term q -exponential occurs in two contexts. The q-exponential distribution , based on the Tsallis q-exponential is discussed in elsewhere.
In combinatorial mathematics , a q -exponential is a q -analog of the exponential function ,
namely the eigenfunction of a q -derivative. There are many q -derivatives, for example, the classical q -derivative , the Askey–Wilson operator , etc. Therefore, unlike the classical exponentials, q -exponentials are not unique. For example,
e
q
(
z
)
{\displaystyle e_{q}(z)}
is the q -exponential corresponding to the classical q -derivative while
E
q
(
z
)
{\displaystyle {\mathcal {E}}_{q}(z)}
are eigenfunctions of the Askey–Wilson operators.
The q -exponential is also known as the quantum dilogarithm .
Definition
The q -exponential
e
q
(
z
)
{\displaystyle e_{q}(z)}
is defined as
e
q
(
z
)
=
∑
n
=
0
∞
z
n
[
n
]
!
q
=
∑
n
=
0
∞
z
n
(
1
−
q
)
n
(
q
;
q
)
n
=
∑
n
=
0
∞
z
n
(
1
−
q
)
n
(
1
−
q
n
)
(
1
−
q
n
−
1
)
⋯
(
1
−
q
)
{\displaystyle e_{q}(z)=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }{\frac {z^{n}}{[n]!_{q}}}=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }{\frac {z^{n}(1-q)^{n}}{(q;q)_{n}}}=\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }z^{n}{\frac {(1-q)^{n}}{(1-q^{n})(1-q^{n-1})\cdots (1-q)}}}
where
[
n
]
!
q
{\displaystyle [n]!_{q}}
is the q -factorial and
(
q
;
q
)
n
=
(
1
−
q
n
)
(
1
−
q
n
−
1
)
⋯
(
1
−
q
)
{\displaystyle (q;q)_{n}=(1-q^{n})(1-q^{n-1})\cdots (1-q)}
is the q -Pochhammer symbol . That this is the q -analog of the exponential follows from the property
(
d
d
z
)
q
e
q
(
z
)
=
e
q
(
z
)
{\displaystyle \left({\frac {d}{dz}}\right)_{q}e_{q}(z)=e_{q}(z)}
where the derivative on the left is the q -derivative . The above is easily verified by considering the q -derivative of the monomial
(
d
d
z
)
q
z
n
=
z
n
−
1
1
−
q
n
1
−
q
=
[
n
]
q
z
n
−
1
.
{\displaystyle \left({\frac {d}{dz}}\right)_{q}z^{n}=z^{n-1}{\frac {1-q^{n}}{1-q}}=[n]_{q}z^{n-1}.}
Here,
[
n
]
q
{\displaystyle [n]_{q}}
is the q -bracket .
For other definitions of the q -exponential function, see Exton (1983) , Ismail & Zhang (1994) , and Cieśliński (2011) .
References
Cieśliński, Jan L. (2011). "Improved q-exponential and q-trigonometric functions" . Applied Mathematics Letters . 24 (12): 2110– 2114. arXiv :1006.5652 . doi :10.1016/j.aml.2011.06.009 . S2CID 205496812 .
Exton, Harold (1983). q-Hypergeometric Functions and Applications . New York: Halstead Press, Chichester: Ellis Horwood. ISBN 0853124914 .
Gasper, George ; Rahman, Mizan Rahman (2004). Basic Hypergeometric Series . Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521833574 .
Ismail, Mourad E. H. (2005). Classical and Quantum Orthogonal Polynomials in One Variable . Cambridge University Press. doi :10.1017/CBO9781107325982 . ISBN 9780521782012 .
Ismail, Mourad E. H. ; Zhang, Ruiming (1994). "Diagonalization of certain integral operators" . Advances in Mathematics . 108 (1): 1– 33. doi :10.1006/aima.1994.1077 .
Ismail, Mourad E. H. ; Rahman, Mizan ; Zhang, Ruiming (1996). "Diagonalization of certain integral operators II" . Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics . 68 (1– 2): 163– 196. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.234.4251 . doi :10.1016/0377-0427(95)00263-4 .
Jackson, F. H. (1909). "On q-functions and a certain difference operator". Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . 46 (2): 253– 281. doi :10.1017/S0080456800002751 . S2CID 123927312 .