Boutroux curves with external field: equilibrium measures without a variational problem (Q692084)

A principal ingredient of the steepest-descent analysis of a \(2\times2\) matrix Riemann-Hilbert problem associated with the semi-classical orthogonal polynomials is a \(g\)-function. In the case of a real polynomial potential, this function is usually found using an equilibrium measure that minimizes an electrostatic energy type functional. For pseudo-orthogonal polynomials corresponding to a complex polynomial potential \(V(x)\) and satisfying the orthogonality condition on a weighted sum of infinite complex contours, the variational problem for the equilibrium measure is not known. Nevertheless, the author proves the existence of the \(g\)-function given by a path integral over the so-called admissible hyperelliptic Boutroux curve \[ y^2=P(x),\;\sqrt{P(x)}=V'(x)-T/x+{\mathcal O}(x^{-2})\quad\text{as }x\to\infty,\;T>0. \] The Boutroux condition means that \[ \operatorname{Re}\oint_{\gamma}\sqrt{P(x)}\,dx=0 \] for any closed loop \(\gamma\). The admissibility of the Boutroux curve, according to the author, means that the integral \[ h(z)=\operatorname{Re}\int_{\alpha_1}^z\sqrt{P(x)}\,dx \] is a function harmonic in a punctured neighborhood of \(z=\infty\), continuous on \({\mathbb C}\) and negative on both sides of each smooth maximal arc of the so-called branch-cut structure. The existence of the admissible Boutroux curve for the pair \((V(x),T)\) follows from the existence of a deformation that turns an initial admissible Boutroux curve \(y^2=P_0(x)\) corresponding to a pair \((V_0(x),T_0)\) of a polynomial potential \(V_0(x)\) with generic coefficients and some parameter \(T_0>0\) into the given pair \((V(x),T)\). The proof of the existence of the initial curve \(y^2=P_0(x)\) given before relies on the uniformization theorem of Riemann surfaces. The latter fact means that the presented proof of the existence theorem for the \(g\)-function does not provide a tool for its construction and cannot be directly used in an asymptotic analysis of the pseudo-orthogonal polynomials.