Negative Pisot and Salem numbers as roots of Newman polynomials (Q2453635): Difference between revisions

A Newman polynomial is a polynomial with all coefficients \(0\) or \(1\) and constant term \(1\). \textit{A. M. Odlyzko} and \textit{B. Poonen} [Enseign. Math. (2) 39, No. 3--4, 317--348 (1993; Zbl 0814.30006)] studied the union of the sets of zeros of all Newman polynomials. One of their results is that this set is contained in the slit annulus \(A_\tau = \{z: 1/\tau < |z| < \tau\} \backslash \mathbb R^+\), where here \(\tau = (1+\sqrt{5})/2\). On the other hand, \textit{P. Drungilas} and \textit{A. Dubickas} [Rocky Mt. J. Math. 39, No. 2, 527--543 (2009; Zbl 1186.12001)] showed that the set of algebraic units whose conjugates all lie in this slit annulus but do not occur as a root of any Newman polynomial is dense in this annulus. In this paper, the authors define negative Pisot and Salem numbers to be the negatives of the standard Pisot and Salem numbers and ask whether such numbers lying in the interval \((-\tau,-1)\) are roots of Newman polynomials. Clearly to be a root of a Newman polynomial an algebraic number can have no positive conjugates. Excluding these, the authors show that the remaining negative Pisot numbers in \((-\tau,-1)\) are roots of Newman polynomials. They also show that this is true for the negatives of the \textit{regular} Salem numbers in \((-\tau,-1)\), those given by applying Salem's construction to one of the negative Pisot numbers in this range. They determine all the negative Salem numbers in \((-\tau,-1)\) of degree at most 20 and show each of these is the root of a Newman polynomial. The proofs employ a number of interesting arguments and algorithms and require the careful consideration of many individual cases. For example, equation (13) exhibits the minimal polynomial \(s_1(z)\) of a degree \(18\) negative Salem number \(\gamma_1 = -1.49604\dots\). They determine a Newman polynomial of degree \(116\) divisible by \(s_1(z)\), this being the Newman polynomial of minimal degree divisible by \(s_1(z)\). In the other direction, in Table 1, they exhibit 10 polynomials of agrees between 6 and 9 with all zeros in \(A_\tau\) which do not divide any Newman polynomial.