7.69 Bug in hypergeom in Maple V.4 (23.9.96)

7.69.1 Tony Blackett

Beware of a bug in Maple V R4 hypergeom function. The following examples illustrate the problem:

> readlib(hypergeom): 
> hypergeom([2],[6],2*I*x); 
 
                          2          3 
        I (1 + 3/2 I x - x  - 1/3 I x  - exp(2 I x) (1 - 1/2 I x)) 
    -15 ---------------------------------------------------------- 
                                     5 
                                    x
 

This first computation causes no problems, but when k is used in place of x, we get a serious error:

> hypergeom([2],[6],2*I*k); 
Error, (in sum) 0^0 is undefined 
 executing statement: convert([`$`(e,x)],`+`) 
 locals defined as: r = r, sums = sums, k = k, naming = naming, unnaming = 
unnaming, a = 0, ans = ans, b = 4, dab = 4, dxx = FAIL, i = i, tp = tp, xx = 
k, np = np, oe = oe, ii = ii, mm = mm, rootslist = rootslist, dummy = dummy, 
has_diffs = false, tmp = tmp, variable = variable 
 sum called with arguments: 
pochhammer(-3,k)*(2*(-1)^(1/2)*k)^k/k!/pochhammer(-4,k), k = 0 .. 3
 

The hypergeom function uses k as a summation index, however, this variable has not been declared as a local variable. Consequently, the index variable k is assumed to be global and gets confused with the formal parameter variable that evaluates to 2*(-1)^(1/2)*k.

This one should be of interest to Technical Support and the Maple developers to fix.

The bug is removed with Maple V Release 5. (U. Klein)