Suppose that
Γ is a continuous and self-adjoint Hankel operator on
L2(0,∞) with kernel
(x+y) and that
18c1c4"> with
c152cb2b71d5d97ddcb94400b8" title="Click to view the MathML source" alt="Click to view the MathML source">a(0)=0. If
a and
b are both quadratic, hyperbolic or trigonometric functions, and
satisfies a suitable form of Gauss's hypergeometric differential equation, or the confluent hypergeometric equation, then
ΓL=LΓ. The paper catalogues the commuting pairs
Γ and
L, including important cases in random matrix theory. There are also results proving rapid decay of the singular numbers of Hankel integral operators with kernels that are analytic and of exponential decay in the right half-plane.