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§31.15 Stieltjes Polynomials

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§31.15(i) Definitions

Stieltjes polynomials are polynomial solutions of the Fuchsian equation (31.14.1). Rewrite (31.14.1) in the form

where \Phi(z) is a polynomial of degree not exceeding N-2. There exist at most \binom{n+N-2}{N-2} polynomials V(z) of degree not exceeding N-2 such that for \Phi(z)=V(z), (31.15.1) has a polynomial solution w=S(z) of degree n. The V(z) are called Van Vleck polynomials and the corresponding S(z) Stieltjes polynomials.

§31.15(ii) Zeros

If z_{1},z_{2},\dots,z_{n} are the zeros of an nth degree Stieltjes polynomial S(z), then every zero z_{k} is either one of the parameters a_{j} or a solution of the system of equations

If t_{k} is a zero of the Van Vleck polynomial V(z), corresponding to an nth degree Stieltjes polynomial S(z), and z_{1}^{{\prime}},z_{2}^{{\prime}},\dots,z_{{n-1}}^{{\prime}} are the zeros of S^{{\prime}}(z) (the derivative of S(z)), then t_{k} is either a zero of S^{{\prime}}(z) or a solution of the equation

The system (31.15.2) determines the z_{k} as the points of equilibrium of n movable (interacting) particles with unit charges in a field of N particles with the charges \gamma_{j}/2 fixed at a_{j}. This is the Stieltjes electrostatic interpretation.

The zeros z_{k}, k=1,2,\ldots,n, of the Stieltjes polynomial S(z) are the critical points of the function G, that is, points at which \ifrac{\partial G}{\partial\zeta_{k}=0}, k=1,2,\ldots,n, where

If the following conditions are satisfied:

and

then there are exactly \binom{n+N-2}{N-2} polynomials S(z), each of which corresponds to each of the \binom{n+N-2}{N-2} ways of distributing its n zeros among N-1 intervals (a_{j},a_{{j+1}}), j=1,2,\dots,N-1. In this case the accessory parameters q_{j} are given by

See Marden (1966), Alam (1979), and Al-Rashed and Zaheer (1985) for further results on the location of the zeros of Stieltjes and Van Vleck polynomials.

§31.15(iii) Products of Stieltjes Polynomials

If the exponent and singularity parameters satisfy (31.15.5)–(31.15.6), then for every multi-index \mathbf{m}=(m_{1},m_{2},\dots,m_{{N-1}}), where each m_{j} is a nonnegative integer, there is a unique Stieltjes polynomial with m_{j} zeros in the open interval (a_{j},a_{{j+1}}) for each j=1,2,\dots,N-1. We denote this Stieltjes polynomial by S_{{\mathbf{m}}}(z).

Let S_{{\mathbf{m}}}(z) and S_{{\mathbf{l}}}(z) be Stieltjes polynomials corresponding to two distinct multi-indices \mathbf{m}=(m_{1},m_{2},\dots,m_{{N-1}}) and \mathbf{l}=(\ell_{1},\ell_{2},\dots,\ell_{{N-1}}). The products

are mutually orthogonal over the set Q:

with respect to the inner product

with weight function

The normalized system of products (31.15.8) forms an orthonormal basis in the Hilbert space L_{\rho}^{2}(Q). For further details and for the expansions of analytic functions in this basis see Volkmer (1999).