The Kummer confluent hypergeometric function and some of its applications in the theory of azimuthally magnetized circular ferrite waveguides

Examples of the application of the confluent hypergeometric functions in miscellaneous areas of the theoretical physics are presented. It is suggested these functions to be utilized as a universal means for solution of a large number of problems, leading to: cylindrical, incomplete gamma, Coulomb wave, Airy, Kelvin, Bateman, Weber’s parabolic cylinder, logarithmic-integral and exponential integral functions, generalized Laguerre, Poisson-Charlier and Hermit polynomials, integral sine and cosine, Fresnel and probability integrals, etc. (whose complete list is given), which are their special cases. The employment of such an approach would permit to develop general methods for integration of these tasks, to generalize results of different directions of physics and to find the common features of various phenomena, governed by equations, pertaining to the same family. Emphasis is placed here on the use of the Kummer function in the field of microwaves: the cases of normal and slow rotationally symmetric TE modes propagation in the azimuthally magnetized circular ferrite waveguide are considered. Lemmas on the properties of the argument, real and imaginary parts, and positive purely imaginary (real) zeros of the function mentioned in the complex (real) domain, of importance in the solution of boundary-value problem stated for normal (slow) waves, are substantiated analytically or numerically. A theorem for the identity of positive purely imaginary and real zeros of the complex respectively real Kummer function for certain parameters, is proved numerically. Tables and graphs support the results established. The terms for wave transmission are obtained as four bilaterally open intervals of variation of the quantities, specifying the fields. It turns out that the normal (slow) modes may exist in one (two) region(s). The theoretically predicted phase curves for the first waves of the two TE sets examined show that the structure explored is suitable for ferrite control components design. Keywords— microwave propagation in anisotropic media, microwave guides and components, ferrite phase shifters, switches and isolators, eigenvalue problems, function-theoretic and computational methods in electromagnetic theory, theoretical and numerical analysis of special functions.