A Sturm-Liouville equation on the crossroads of continuous and discrete hypercomplex analysis

The paper studies discrete structural properties of polynomials that play an important role in the theory of spherical harmonics in any dimensions. These polynomials have their origin in the research on problems of harmonic analysis by means of generalized holomorphic (monogenic) functions of hypercomplex analysis. The Sturm-Liouville equation that occurs in this context supplements the knowledge about generalized Vietoris number sequences Vn, first encountered as a special sequence (corresponding to n=2) by Vietoris in connection with positivity of trigonometric sums. Using methods of the calculus of holonomic differential equations, we obtain a general recurrence relation for Vn, and we derive an exponential generating function of Vn expressed by Kummer's confluent hypergeometric function.
This work was supported by Portuguese funds through the CMAT—Research Centre of Mathematics of University of Minho—and through the CIDMA-Center of Research and Development in Mathematics and Applications (University of Aveiro) and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (“FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia”), within projects UIDB/00013/2020, UIDP/00013/2020, UIDB/04106/2020 , and UIDP/04106/2020.