Download or read book Algebraic Methods and $q$-Special Functions written by Jan Felipe Van Diejen and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 1999 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There has been revived interest in recent years in the study of special functions. Many of the latest advances in the field were inspired by the works of R. A. Askey and colleagues on basic hypergeometric series and I. G. Macdonald on orthogonal polynomials related to root systems. Significant progress was made by the use of algebraic techniques involving quantum groups, Hecke algebras, and combinatorial methods. The CRM organized a workshop for key researchers in the field to present an overview of current trends. This volume consists of the contributions to that workshop. Topics include basic hypergeometric functions, algebraic and representation-theoretic methods, combinatorics of symmetric functions, root systems, and the connections with integrable systems.