English

On the zero set of the partial theta function

Classical Analysis and ODEs 2019-12-18 v1

Abstract

We consider the partial theta function θ(q,x):=j=0qj(j+1)/2xj\theta (q,x):=\sum _{j=0}^{\infty}q^{j(j+1)/2}x^j, where q(1,0)(0,1)q\in (-1,0)\cup (0,1) and either xRx\in \mathbb{R} or xCx\in \mathbb{C}. We prove that for xRx\in \mathbb{R}, in each of the two cases q(1,0)q\in (-1,0) and q(0,1)q\in (0,1), its zero set consists of countably-many smooth curves in the (q,x)(q,x)-plane each of which (with the exception of one curve for q(1,0)q\in (-1,0)) has a single point with a tangent line parallel to the xx-axis. These points define double zeros of the function θ(q,.)\theta (q,.); their xx-coordinates belong to the interval [38.83,e1.4=4.05)[-38.83\ldots ,-e^{1.4}=4.05\ldots ) for q(0,1)q\in (0,1) and to the interval (13.29,23.65)(-13.29,23.65) for q(1,0)q\in (-1,0). For q(0,1)q\in (0,1), infinitely-many of the complex conjugate pairs of zeros to which the double zeros give rise cross the imaginary axis and then remain in the half-disk {x<18\{ |x|<18, Re\,x>0}x>0\}. For q(1,0)q\in (-1,0), complex conjugate pairs do not cross the imaginary axis.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1807.01564,
  title  = {On the zero set of the partial theta function},
  author = {Vladimir Petrov Kostov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.01564},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

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R2 v1 2026-06-23T02:50:35.337Z