On the zeros of associated polynomials of classical orthogonal polynomials (Q1308521)

Let \(r_{n-1}\) be the associated polynomial of a classical sequence \((p_ n)_{n\geq 0}\) of orthogonal polynomials. By a recent conjecture of A. Ronvaux, the zeros \(x_ \nu\) \((\nu=1,\dots,n)\), \(x_ \nu'\) and \(\xi_ \nu\) \((\nu=1,\dots,n-1)\) of the polynomials \(p_ n\), \(p_ n'\), and \(r_{n-1}\) respectively are related in decreasing order by \[ x_{\nu+1} < x_ \nu' <\xi_ \nu <x_ \nu\quad\text{for }\nu=1,\ldots,\bigl[(n-1)/2\bigr]. \] Parts of this conjecture were proved recently by F. Pehersdorfer. In this paper, the conjecture above is verified for all ultraspherical polynomials as well as for the Hermite polynomials. The proof is based on writing \(r_{n-1}\) as a linear combination of the polynomials \(p_ n(x)/(x-x_ \nu)\). The exact region of all parameters \(\alpha\), \(\beta\) of the Jacobi polynomials such that the conjecture of Ronvaux is satisfied is still unknown.