Extensions of the Bloch-Pólya theorem on the number of real zeros of polynomials (Q1011954)

T. Erdélyi prove the following fine result: there are absolute constants \(c_1>0\) and \(c_2>0\) such that for every \(\{a_0,a_1,\ldots,a_n\}\subset [1,M]\), \(1\leq M \leq \exp(c_1 n^{1/4})\) there are \(b_0,b_1,\ldots,b_n\in \{-1,0,1\}\) such that \(P(z)=\sum_{j=0}^{n} b_j a_j z^j\) has at least \(c_2 n^{1/4}\) distinct sign changes in \((0,1)\). In the case \(M=1\) this improves the result of \textit{A. Bloch} and \textit{G. Pólya} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 33, 102--114 (1931; Zbl 0003.10501 and JFM 57.0128.03)] from \(c n^{1/4} / \sqrt{\log n}\) to \(c n^{1/4}\). We note that also the proof of the above theorem is very attractive. Moreover interesting background information are given in the paper.