Pad\'e Approximation and Hypergeometric Functions: A Missing Link with the Spectrum of Delay-Differential Equations

Abstract

It is well known that rational approximation theory involves degenerate hypergeometric functions and, in particular, the Pad\'e approximation of the exponential function is closely related to Kummer hypergeometric functions. Recently, in the context of the study of the exponential stability of the trivial solution of delay-differential equations, a new link between the degenerate hypergeometric function and the zeros distribution of the characteristic function associated with linear delay-differential equations was emphasized. Such a link allowed the characterization of a property of time-delay systems known as multiplicity-induced-dominancy (MID), which opened a new direction in designing low-complexity controllers for time-delay systems by using a partial pole placement idea. Thanks to their relations to hypergeometric functions, we explore in this paper links between the spectrum of delay-differential equations and Pad\'e approximations of the exponential function. This note exploits and further comments recent results from [I. Boussaada, G. Mazanti and S-I. Niculescu. 2022, Comptes Rendus. Math\'ematique, arXiv:2107.11363] and [I. Boussaada, G. Mazanti and S-I. Niculescu. 2022, Bulletin des Sciences Math\'ematiques, arXiv:2106.03378].