Boas-Buck structures on sequences of polynomials (Q1813239)

The authors define a Boas-Buck structure to be a sequence \(\{s_n(x): n<\omega\}\) of real polynomials with \(\deg s_n= n\) such that there is a sequence \(\{\lambda_ n: n<\omega\}\) of nonzero reals with the property that the formal power series \(S(x,t,\lambda)=\sum_{n<\omega} \lambda_n s_n(x)t^n\) can be written in the form \(g(t)\Psi(xf(t))\), where \(\Psi(t)\), \(f(t)\), and \(g(t)\) are formal power series satisfying \(f(0)= 0\), \(f'(0)\neq 0\), \(g(0)= 1\). In other words, a suitably weighted generating function for the sequence \(\{s_n\}\) has this special form. In their book [``Polynomial expansion of analytic functions.'' Berlin etc.: Springer-Verlag (1958; Zbl 0082.05702)], \textit{R. P. Boas jun.} and \textit{R. C. Buck} characterized the unweighted generating functions \((\lambda_ n= 1\) for all \(n\)) as the solutions \(S(x,t)\) of the linear differential equation \(x(\partial/\partial x)S= L(t)S\), where \(L(t)= \eta(t)t\partial/\partial t+\zeta(t)\), \(\eta= f/tf'\), \(\zeta/\eta= - tg'/g\), subject to the boundary condition \(\sum_{n<\omega} a_n t^n= \Psi(f'(0)t)\), \(a_ n\) being the leading coefficient of \(s_ n(x)\). In this paper, the authors obtain a classification of arbitrary Boas-Buck structures. The key idea is that (up to an equivalence on sequences of weight constants) the Boas-Buck structures associated with a sequence \(\{s_n\}\) of polynomials are classified by triples \((L_1,L_2,d_\gamma)\) of linear operators, such that \(d_\gamma L_1= L_2 d_\gamma\), where, for \(\gamma= \{\gamma_ n\}\), \(d_\gamma(t^n)= t^n/\gamma_ n\), \(L_1(t)= \eta(t)t\partial/\partial t+ \zeta(t)\) is the operator defined in the Boas-Buck theorem, and \(L_2(t)= \eta_2(t)t\partial/\partial t+\zeta_ 2(t)\). The principal theorem in the paper gives a complete (one-page) description of all triples \((L_1,L_2,d_\gamma)\) that satisfy \(d_\gamma L_1= L_2 d_\gamma\). The classification of Boas-Buck structures is an easy consequence of this result.