Solutions for confluent and double-confluent Heun equations

This paper examines some solutions for confluent and double-confluent Heun equations. In the first place, we review two Leaver's solutions in series of regular and irregular confluent hypergeometric functions for the confluent equation [Leaver, E. W., J. Math. Phys. 27, 1238 (1986)] and introduce an additional expansion in series of irregular confluent hypergeometric functions. Then, we find the conditions under which one of these solutions can be written as a linear combination of the others. In the second place, by means of limiting procedures we generate solutions for the double-confluent equation as well as for special limits of both the confluent and double-confluent equations. Finally, we present some problems which are ruled by one or the other of these four equations. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.