Complex spectrum of the partial theta function
Abstract
We study the complex spectrum of the partial theta function where a spectral value is a parameter for which has a multiple zero. Since the function is defined here only for , all spectral values are strictly inside the unit disk; boundary points on occur only as accumulation points of the spectrum. The paper combines two complementary points of view. Near the unit circle we prove that every point of is an accumulation point of the spectrum; the proof uses explicit spectral factors of truncations, the Jacobi triple product, and a boundary-window lifting argument near roots of unity. Inside a fixed subdisk, illustrated for , the true spectrum is locally finite and must be separated carefully from the much larger branch loci of truncations and Jensen polynomials. We give a truncation-seeded Newton procedure which produces a discrete list of candidate spectral values, explain the caustic/escaping-root mechanism in finite approximants, and record numerical monodromy experiments for the first dominating first-quadrant spectral points, for the second layer, and for the first negative real spectral points, with a separate warning about the natural base point on the negative real axis.
Comments: 24 pages, 6 figures
Cite
@article{arxiv.2605.29991,
title = {Complex spectrum of the partial theta function},
author = {Boris Shapiro},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.29991},
year = {2026}
}