Total positivity of Hadamard products (Q1191755)

The Hadamard product of two totally positive Toeplitz matrices \(M\) and \(N\) need not be totally positive. When only finitely many diagonals of \(M\) and \(N\) are nonzero, preservation of total positivity by Hadarmard product is a theorem of Maló. The author establishes another sufficient condition for the preservation of total positivity: if \(M\) and \(N\) are totally positive lower triangular Toeplitz matrices such that the value on the \(n\)th diagonal is a polynomial function of \(n\), then the Hadamard product \(M \cdot N\) is totally positive. He uses the characterization of the generating functions of Pólya frequency sequences given by \textit{M. Aissen}, \textit{A. Edrei}, \textit{I. J. Schoenberg}, and \textit{A. Whitney} [Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 37, 303-307 (1951; Zbl 0042.292)], and in the course of the proof he extends the concept of Sturm sequences, and develops some other results on polynomials with only real roots. The paper includes sections of Hadamard and diamond products, alternating and interlacing roots, Sturm sequences, The box lemma, and echelons of polynomials.