Asymptotics I&II

Abstract
 

In the first lecture, I will review the method of steepest descent and its extension by Chester, Friedman and Ursell.  Then I will discuss a further extension and its application to some orthogonal polynomials.

View the extended abstract of the first lecture in  latex, dvi, ps and pdf.
 

In my second lecture, I will present a new interpretation of Stokes phenomenon due to M.V. Berry and the concept of Exponential Asymptotics. If time allows, I will also illustrate these new ideas with the generalized Bessel function and the Mittag-Leffler function.
 
View the extended abstract of the second lecture in  latex, dvi, ps and pdf .