Ap. Bassom et al., APPLICATION OF UNIFORM ASYMPTOTICS TO THE 2ND PAINLEVE TRANSCENDENT, Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, 143(3), 1998, pp. 241-271
In this work we propose a new method for investigating connection prob
lems for the class of nonlinear second-order differential equations kn
own as the Painleve equations. Such problems can be characterized by t
he question as to how the asymptotic behaviours of solutions are relat
ed as the independent variable is allowed to pass towards infinity alo
ng different directions in the complex plane. Connection problems have
been previously tackled by a variety of methods. Frequently these are
based on the ideas of isomonodromic deformation and the matching of W
KB solutions. However, the implementation of these methods often tends
to be heuristic in nature and so the task of rigorising the process i
s complicated. The method we propose here develops uniform approximati
ons to solutions. This removes the need to match solutions, is rigorou
s, and can lead to the solution of connection problems with minimal co
mputational effort. Our method relies on finding uniform approximation
s of differential equations of the generic form [GRAPHICS] as the comp
lex-valued parameter xi --> infinity. The details of the treatment rel
y heavily on the locations of the zeros of the function F in this limi
t. IF they are isolated, then a uniform approximation to solutions can
be derived in terns of Airy functions of suitable argument. On the ot
her hand, if two of the zeros of F coalesce as \xi\ --> infinity, then
an approximation can be derived in terms of parabolic cylinder functi
ons. In this paper we discuss both eases, but illustrate our technique
in action by applying the parabolic cylinder case to the ''classical'
' connection problem associated with the second Painleve transcendent.
Future papers will show how the technique can be applied with very li
ttle change to the other Painleve equations, and to the wider problem
of the asymptotic behaviour of the general solution to any of these eq
uations.