In this paper we present a unified approach to the spectral analysis of a hypergeometric type operator whose eigenfunctions include the classical orthogonal polynomials. We write the eigenfunctions of this operator by means of a new Taylor formula for operators of Askey-Wilson type. This gives rise to some expressions for the eigenfunctions, which are unknown in such a general setting. Our methods also give a general Rodrigues formula from which several well-known formulas of Rodrigues-type can be obtained directly. Moreover, other new Rodrigues-type formulas come out when seeking for regular solutions of the associated functional equations. The main difference here is that, in contrast with the formulas appearing in the literature, we get non-ramified solutions which are useful for applications in combinatorics. Another fact, that becomes clear in this paper, is the role played by the theory of elliptic functions in the connection between ramified and non-ramified solutions.

Abstract. Sharp Fourier type and cotype of Lebesgue spaces and Schatten classes with respect to an arbitrary compact semisimple Lie group are investigated. In the process, a local variant of the Hausdorff-Young inequality on such groups is given.

Abstract. Let Ω be a vector space over a finite field with q elements. Let G denote the general linear group of endomorphisms of Ω and let us consider the left regular representation ρ : G → B(L 2 (X)) associated to the natural action of G on the set X of linear subspaces of Ω. In this paper we study a natural basis B of the algebra End G (L 2 (X)) of intertwining maps on L 2 (X). By using a Laplacian operator on Grassmann graphs, we identify the kernels in B as solutions of a basic hypergeometric difference equation. This provides two expressions for these kernels. One in terms of the q-Hahn polynomials and the other by means of a Rodrigues type formula. Finally, we obtain a useful product formula for the mappings in B. We give two different proofs. One uses the theory of classical hypergeometric polynomials and the other is supported by a characterization of spherical functions in finite symmetric spaces. Both proofs require the use of certain associated Radon transforms.

Abstract. An analogue of Taylor's formula, which arises by substituting the classical derivative by a divided difference operator of Askey-Wilson type, is developed here. We study the convergence of the associated Taylor series. Our results complement a recent work by Ismail and Stanton. Quite surprisingly, in some cases the Taylor polynomials converge to a function which differs from the original one. We provide explicit expressions for the integral remainder. As an application, we obtain some summation formulas for basic hypergeometric series. As far as we know, one of them is new. We conclude by studying the different forms of the binomial theorem in this context.

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