On a conjecture of Sendov about the critical points of a polynomial (Q1062169)

Let \[ (1)\quad p(z)=\prod^{n}_{\nu =1}(z-z_{\nu}),\quad | z_{\nu}| \leq 1,\quad \nu =1,2,...,n,\quad n\geq 2. \] Sendov conjectured that for each \(z_{\nu}\) the disc \(\{\) \(z: | z- z_{\nu}| \leq 1\}\) contains at least one zero of p'(z). This conjecture was verified if \(p(0)=0\) or for such \(z_{\nu}\) that \(| z_{\nu}| =1\). In general this conjecture is still open. Let \(D(a;r)=\{z: | z-a| \leq r\}\). Schmeisser proposed to determine the smallest universal constant \(r^*\) such that for every polynomial of the form (1) each disc \(D(z_{\nu};r^*)\) contains at least one zero of p'(z). The equality \(r^*=1\) is equivalent to the Sendov conjecture. Schmeisser proved that \(r^*<1.568....\) In this paper the authors prove: Theorem. If p(z) is the polynomial of the form (1), then each disc \(D(z_{\nu};(1+| z_ 1z_ 2...z_ n|)^{1/n})\) contains at least one zero of p'(z). Using this theorem they show that \(r^*<1.08331641... \).