On Airy Solutions of the Second Painlevé Equation

Abstract: In this paper we discuss Airy solutions of the second Painlev\'e equation (\mbox{\rm P${\rm II}$}) and two related equations, the Painlev\'e XXXIV equation ($\mbox{\rm P}{34}$) and the Jimbo-Miwa-Okamoto $\sigma$ form of \mbox{\rm P${\rm II}$}\ (\mbox{\rm S${\rm II}$}), are discussed. It is shown that solutions which depend only on the Airy function $\mathop{\rm Ai}\nolimits(z)$ have a completely difference structure to those which involve a linear combination of the Airy functions $\mathop{\rm Ai}\nolimits(z)$ and $\mathop{\rm Bi}\nolimits(z)$. For all three equations, the special solutions which depend only on $\mathop{\rm Ai}\nolimits(t)$ are \textit{tronqu\'ee} solutions, i.e.\ they have no poles in a sector of the complex plane. Further for both $\mbox{\rm P}{34}$\ and \mbox{\rm S${\rm II}$}, it is shown that amongst these \textit{tronqu\'ee} solutions there is a family of solutions which have no poles on the real axis.