UNIFORM, EXPONENTIALLY IMPROVED, ASYMPTOTIC EXPANSIONS FOR THE GENERALIZED EXPONENTIAL INTEGRAL

By allowing the number of terms in an asymptotic expansion to depend on the asymptotic variable, it is possible to obtain an error term that is exponentially small as the asymptotic variable tends to its limit. This procedure is called "exponential improvement." It is shown how to improve exponentially the well-known Poincare expansions for the generalized exponential integral (or incomplete Gamma function) of large argument. New uniform expansions are derived in terms of elementary functions, and also in terms of the error function. Inter alia, the results supply a rigorous foundation for some of the recent work of M. V. Berry on a smooth interpretation of the Stokes phenomenon.