Ramanujan's Lost Notebook: Part II

This is the second of approximately four volumes that the authors plan to write in their examination of all the claims made by S. Ramanujan in The Lost Notebook and Other Unpublished Papers. This volume, published by Narosa in 1988, contains the “Lost Notebook,” which was discovered by the ?rst author in the spring of 1976 at the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. Also included in this publication are other partial manuscripts, fragments, and letters that Ramanujan wrote to G. H. Hardy from nursing homes during 1917–1919. The authors have attempted to organize this disparate material in chapters. This second volume contains 16 chapters comprising 314 entries, including some duplications and examples, with chapter totals ranging from a high of ?fty-four entries in Chapter 1 to a low of two entries in Chapter 12. Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 The Heine Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1. 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1. 2 Heine’s Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1. 3 Ramanujan’s Proof of the q-Gauss Summation Theorem . . . . . 10 1. 4 Corollaries of (1. 2. 1) and (1. 2. 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 1. 5 Corollaries of (1. 2. 6) and (1. 2. 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 1. 6 Corollaries of (1. 2. 8), (1. 2. 9), and (1. 2. 10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 1. 7 Corollaries of Section 1. 2 and Auxiliary Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 2 The Sears–Thomae Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 2. 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 45 2. 2 Direct Corollaries of (2. 1. 1) and (2. 1. 3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 2. 3 Extended Corollaries of (2. 1. 1) and (2. 1. 3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This volume is the second of approximately four volumes that the authors plan to write on Ramanujan’s lost notebook, which is broadly interpreted to include all material published in The Lost Notebook and Other Unpublished Papers in 1988.

The primary topics addressed in the authors’ second volume on the lost notebook are q-series, Eisenstein series, and theta functions. Most of the entries on q-series are located in the heart of the original lost notebook, while the entries on Eisenstein series are either scattered in the lost notebook or are found in letters that Ramanujan wrote to G.H. Hardy from nursing homes.

About Ramanujan's Lost Notebook, Volume I:

"Andrews and Berndt are to be congratulated on the job they are doing. This is the first step...on the way to an understanding of the work of the genius Ramanujan. It should act as an inspiration to future generations of mathematicians to tackle a job that will never be complete."

- Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society

"...the results are organized topically with cross-references to the identities as they appear in the original Ramanujan manuscript. Particularly helpful are the extensive references, indicating where in the literature these results have been proven or independently discovered as well as where and how they have been used."

- Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society

"The mathematics community owes a huge debt of gratitude to Andrews and Berndt for undertaking the monumental task of producing a coherent presentation along with complete proofs of the chaotically written mathematical thoughts of Ramanujan during the last year of his life. Some 85 years after his death, beautiful "new" and useful results of Ramanujan continue to be brought to light."

- Mathematical Reviews