1. Introduction, Definitions and Preliminaries
The subject of 
q-calculus leads to a new method for computations and classifications of 
q-series and 
q-polynomials. In fact, the subject of 
q-calculus was initiated in the 1920s. However, it has gained considerable popularity and importance during the last three decades or so. In the past decade, 
q-calculus was developed into an interdisciplinary subject and it served as a bridge between mathematics and physics. The field has been expanded explosively due mainly to its applications in diverse areas of physics such as cosmic strings and black holes [
1], conformal quantum mechanics [
2], nuclear and high energy physics [
3], fluid mechanics, combinatorics, having connection with commutativity relations, number theory, and Lie algebra. The  definitions and notations of the 
q-calculus reviewed here are taken from [
4] (see also [
5,
6]).
The 
q-analogue of the Pochhammer symbol 
, which is also called the 
q-shifted factorial, defined by
      
The 
q-analogues of a complex number 
 and of the factorial function are defined as follows:
      and
      
      where 
 is the set of positive integers.
The 
q-binomial coefficients 
 are defined by
      
The 
q-analogue of the classical derivative 
 or 
 of a function 
f at a point 
 is defined by
      
      We also note that
      
The two familiar 
q-analogues of the exponential function 
 are given by
      
      and
      
The above-defined 
q-exponential functions 
 and 
 satisfy the following properties:
The class of Appell polynomials was introduced and characterized completely by Appell [
7] in 1880. Further, Throne [
8], Sheffer [
9] and Varma [
10] studied this class of polynomials from different points of view. For some subsequent and recent developments associated with the Appell polynomials, one may refer to the works [
11,
12,
13,
14].
In the year 1954, Sharma and Chak [
15] introduced a 
q-analogue of the Appell polynomials and called this sequence of polynomials as 
q-Harmonics. Later, in the year 1967, Al-Salam [
16] introduced the class of the 
q-Appell polynomials 
 and studied some of their properties. Some characterizations of the 
q-Appell polynomials were presented by Srivastava [
17] in the year 1982. These polynomials arise in numerous problems of applied mathematics, theoretical physics, approximation theory and many other branches of the mathematical sciences [
7,
18,
19,
20]. The polynomials 
 (of degree 
m) are called 
q-Appell polynomials, provided that they satisfy the following 
q-differential equation:
Recently, Keleshteri and Mahmudov [
21] introduced the 2D 
q-Appell polynomials (2DqAP) 
 which are defined by means of the following generating function:
      where
      
      We write
      
      where 
 denotes the 2D 
q-Appell numbers.
For 
, the 2DqAP 
 reduce to the 
q-Appell polynomials 
 (see, for example, [
16,
17,
22]), that is,
      
      where 
 are defined by
      
      and 
 given by
      
      denotes the 
q-Appell numbers.
The explicit form of the 2DqAP 
 in terms qAP 
 is given as follows (see [
21]):
The function  may be called the determining function for the set . Based on suitable selections for the function , the following different members belonging to the family of the 2D q-Appell polynomials  can be obtained:
- I. 
 If 
, the 2DqAP 
 reduce to the 2D 
q-Bernoulli polynomials (2DqBP) 
 (see [
23,
24]), that is,
          
          where 
 are defined by
          
          and 
 given by
          
          denotes the 2D 
q-Bernoulli numbers.
- II. 
 If 
, the 2DqAP 
 reduce to the 2D 
q-Euler polynomials (2DqEP) 
 (see [
23,
24]), that is,
          
          where 
 are defined by
          
          and 
 given by
          
          denotes the 2D 
q-Euler numbers.
- III. 
 If 
, the 2DqAP 
 reduce to the 2D 
q-Genocchi polynomials (2DqGP) 
 (see [
23,
24]; see also [
25]), that is,
          
          where 
 are defined by
          
          and 
 denotes the 2D 
q-Genocchi numbers.
We recall here that, in a recent paper, Khan and Riyasat [
26] introduced the twice-iterated 
q-Appell polynomials 
 which are defined by means of the following generating function:
In this paper, the class of the twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials is introduced by means of generating functions, recurrence relations, partial 
q-difference equations, and series and determinant expressions. Further, several results are obtained for the members corresponding to this polynomial family. In 
Section 2, the twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials are introduced by means of the generating functions and series definition. Also, the recurrence relation and 
q-difference equations involving the twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials are derived. In 
Section 3, a determinant expression for the twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials is established. In 
Section 4, the determinant expressions and some other properties of the members belonging to the family of the twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials are obtained. 
Section 5 provides several graphical representations and surface plots associated with several members of families of 
q-polynomials which have investigated in this paper. Finally, in 
Section 6, we present some concluding remarks and observations.
  2. Twice-Iterated 2D q-Appell Polynomials
In order to introduce the twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials (2I2DqAP), we consider two different sets of the 2D 
q-Appell polynomials 
 and 
 such that
      
      where
      
      where
      
The generating function for the 2I2DqAP is asserted by the following result.
Theorem 1. The generating function for the twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials  is given by  Proof.  By expanding the first 
q-exponential function 
 in the left-hand side of the Equation (
20) and then replacing the powers of 
x, that is, 
 by the polynomials 
  in the left-hand side and 
 by 
 in the right-hand side of the resultant equation, we have
        
Moreover, by summing up the series in the left-hand side and then using the Equation (
24) in the resulting equation, we get
        
Finally, denoting the resulting 2I2DqAP in the right-hand side of the above equation by 
, that is,
        
        the assertion (
25) of Theorem 1 is proved. □
 Remark 1. For , the 2I2DqAP  reduce to the twice-iterated q-Appell polynomials (see [26]) such thatIt is also noted that  We next give the series definition for the 2I2DqAP  by proving the following result.
Theorem 2. The twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials  are given by the following series expression:  Proof.  In view of the Equations (
21) and (
22), the Equation (
25) can be written as follows:
        
        which, on using the Cauchy product rule, gives
        
Equating the coefficients of like powers of 
t in both sides of the above equation, we arrive at the assertion (
31) of Theorem 2. □
 Remark 2. For 
, the series expression (
31) becomes
        
        which is a known result [
26] (p. 5, Equation (2.8)).
 We now state and prove the following result.
Theorem 3. The following relation between the twice-iterated 2D q-Appell polynomials  and the twice-iterated q-Appell polynomials  holds true:  Proof.  Using the Equations (
7) and (
19) in the left-hand side of the generating function (
25), we get
        
        which, on applying the Cauchy product rule in the left-hand side, yields
        
Finally, equating the coefficients of like powers of 
t on both sides of this last equation, we obtain the assertion (
35) of Theorem 3. □
 Remark 3. By taking  in the result (35), we get  Remark 4. The following statements are equivalent:and  In order to derive the q-recurrence relations and the q-difference equations for the twice-iterated 2D q-Appell polynomials by using the lowering operators that are, in fact, the q-derivative operator , we first prove the following lemma.
Lemma 1. The twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials  satisfy the following operational relations:and  Proof.  In view of the Equation (
25), the proof of the above lemma requires a direct use of the identity (
5). We, therefore, skip the details involved. □
 We now derive the q-recurrence relations for the 2I2DqAP .
Theorem 4. The twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials  satisfy the following linear homogeneous recurrence relation:where  Proof.  Consider the following generating function:
        
        By taking the 
q-derivative of the Equation (
47) partially with respect to 
t, we get
        
        Thus, upon factorizing 
 occurring in the left-hand side and multiplying both sides of the identity (
48) by 
t, we find that
        
In view of the assumption (
46) and the Equation (
47), the Equation (
49) becomes
        
        which, on using the Cauchy product rule, gives
        
Finally, upon equating the coefficients of like powers of 
t on both sides of the above equation and dividing both sides of the resulting equation by 
, we get the assertion (
45) of Theorem 4. □
 We now state and prove the following result.
Theorem 5. The following recurrence relation for the twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials  holds true:  Proof.  We first use the Equation (
47) in both sides of the Equation (
49). Then, after some simplification, by equating the coefficients of like powers of 
t on both sides of the resulting equation, we arrive at the assertion (
52) of Theorem 5. □
 We next derive the q-difference equations which are satisfied by the twice-iterated 2D q-Appell polynomials.
Theorem 6. The twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials  are the solutions of the following q-difference equations:or  Proof.  The proof of the assertions (
53) and (
54) of Theorem 6 would follow directly upon using the Equations (
43) and (
44), respectively, in the recurrence relation (
45). □
 In the next section (
Section 3 below), the determinant forms for the 2I2DqAP are established.
  4. Several Members of the Twice-Iterated 2D -Appell Polynomials
During the last two decades, much research work has been done for different members of the family of the q-Appell polynomials and the 2D q-Appell polynomials. By making suitable selections for the functions  and , the members belonging to the family of the twice-iterated 2D q-Appell polynomials  can be obtained. The 2D q-Bernoulli polynomials , the 2D q-Euler polynomials  and the 2D q-Genocchi polynomials  are important members of the 2D q-Appell family. Therefore, in this section, we first introduce the 2D q-Euler based Bernoulli polynomials (2DqEBP)  and the 2D q-Genocchi based Bernoulli polynomials (2DqGBP)  by means of their respective generating functions and series definitions. We then explore other properties of these members.
  4.1. The 2D q-Euler–Bernoulli Polynomials
Since, for
        
        the 2DqAP 
 reduce to the 2DqEP 
 and the 2DqBP 
, respectively. Therefore, for the same choices of 
, that is,
        
        the 2I2DqAP reduce to 2DqEBP 
 and are defined by means of generating functions as follows:
The 2DqEBP 
 of degree 
m are defined by the following series:
The following relation between the 2DqEBP 
 and the qEBP 
 holds true:
        which, for 
, yields
        
The 2DqEBP 
 satisfy the following recurrence relation: 
Further, by taking
        
        and
        
        in the Equation (56), we obtain the determinant definition of the 2DqEBP 
 as given below.
Definition 1. The 2D q-Euler–Bernoulli polynomials  of degree m are defined bywhere  are the 2D q-Euler polynomials of degree m.    4.2. The 2D q-Genocchi–Bernoulli Polynomials
Since, for
        
        the 2DqAP 
 reduce to the 2DqGP 
 and the 2DqBP 
, respectively. Therefore, for the same choices of 
, that is,
        
        the 2I2DqAP reduce to 2DqGBP 
 and are defined by means of generating functions as follows:
The 2DqGBP 
 of degree 
m are defined by the following series:
The following relation between the 2DqGBP 
 and the qGBP 
 holds true:
        which, for 
, gives
        
The 2DqGBP 
 satisfy the following recurrence relation:
In the next section (
Section 5 below), we give some graphical representations and the surface plots of some of the members of the twice-iterated 2D 
q-Appell polynomials.
  5. Graphical Representations and Surface Plots
Here, in this section, the graphs of the q-Euler–Bernoulli polynomials (qEBP) , q-Genocchi- Bernoulli polynomials (qGBP)  and the surface plots of the 2DqEBP  and the 2DqGBP  are presented.
To draw the plot of the qEBP 
 and the qGBP 
, we choose 
 and consider the values of the first four 
q-Euler–Bernoulli polynomials and of the first four 
q-Genocchi–Bernoulli polynomials, the expressions of these polynomials are given in 
Table 1.
Further, by setting 
 and 
 in the series definitions (
72) and (
79) of 
 and 
 and using the particular values of 
 and 
 from 
Table 1, we find that
      
      and
      
Further, with the help of Matlab, we compute the real and complex zeros of 
 and 
 for 
 and 
. These zeros are mentioned in 
Table 2 and 
Table 3.
  6. Concluding Remarks and Observations
As long ago as 1910, Jackson [
27] studied the 
q-definite integral of an arbitrary function 
, which is defined as follows:
      and
      
Applying the double 
q-integral to both sides of the Equation (
42), that is,
      
      we have
      
In view of the Equation (
41), the above Equation (
88) yields
      
      which, on using the Equations (
13) and (
39), becomes
      
Further, in view of the Equations (
31) and (
34), the Equations (
90) yields
      
In conclusion, we choose to reiterate the now well-understood fact that the results for the 
q-analogues, which we have considered in this article for 
, can easily be translated into the corresponding results for the so-called 
-analogues (with 
) by applying some obviously trivial parametric and argument variations, the additional parameter 
p being redundant. In fact, the so-called 
-number 
 is given (for 
) by (see also [
28])
      
      where, for the classical 
q-number 
, we have
      
Consequently, any claimed extensions of most (including the present) investigations involving the classical q-calculus to the corresponding obviously straightforward investigations involving the -calculus are truly inconsequential.
Further investigations along the lines presented in this paper, which are associated with the various recent generalizations and extensions of the Apostol type Bernoulli, Euler and Genocchi polynomials introduced by, for example, Srivastava et al. (see [
29,
30]) may be worthy of consideration by the targeted readers.