On foci of ellipses inscribed in cyclic polygons (Q2066116): Difference between revisions

For a natural number \(n\geq 3\) and \(E\) an ellipse in the open unit disk \(\mathbb{D}\) in the complex plane, Poncelet's Theorem asserts that if there is an \(n\)-gon \(P\) inscribed in the unit circle \(\mathbb{T}\) (i.e., a cyclic \(n\)-gon) with every side of \(P\) tangent to \(E\), then there are in fact infinitely many such \(n\)-gons and the union of the vertices of these \(n\)-gons fills \(\mathbb{T}\). Given two points \(a\) and \(b\) in the unit disk \(\mathbb{D}\) in the complex plane, it is known that there exists a unique elliptical disk having \(a\) and \(b\) as foci that can also be realized as the intersection of a collection of convex cyclic \(n\)-gons whose vertices fill the whole unit circle \(\mathbb{T}\). What is less clear is how to find a convenient formula or expression for such an elliptical disk. The main result of the paper is to show how orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle provide a useful tool for finding such a formula for some values of \(n\). The main idea is to realize the elliptical disk as the numerical range of a matrix and the problem reduces to finding the eigenvalues of that matrix. For the entire collection see [Zbl 1479.47003].