On power series having sections with only real zeros (Q1884443)

The authors investigate a class \(A^{*}\) of power series with non-negative coefficients such that all but a finite number of its sections have only real zeros. The authors obtain some new necessary conditions for a power series to belong to \(A^{*}\). Theorem 1. Let \(f(z)= \sum_{k=0}^{\infty} a_{k}z^{k}\in A^{*}\). Then \(\lim \inf_{n\rightarrow \infty} q_{n}(f)\geq 1+ \sqrt{3}\). By \(R^{*}\) is denoted the set of real polynomials having only real zeros. G. H. Hardy has shown that \(g_{a}(z)= \sum_{k=0}^{\infty}a^{-k^{2}} z^{k}, \;a> 1\), has only real zeros \(a^{2}\geq 9\). G. Pólya and G. Szegö has proved that \(g_{a}(z)\) has only real zeros if \(a^{2}\geq 4\). The question about the smallest value of \(a\) for which \(g_{a}(z)\) has only real zeros was discussed recently by T. Craven and G. Csordas which have improved the method of G. Pólya and G. Szegö and have shown that \(a^{2}\geq 3.4225\) is enough. The main result of this paper is the complete answer to the question: for which \(a\) does the function \(g_{a}(z)\), \(a>1\), have only real zeros. This results is included in the following theorem: Theorem 4. There exists a constant \(q_{\infty}, q_{\infty}\approx 3.23\), such that (i) \(S_{2k+1}(z, g_{a}):= \sum_{j=0}^{2k+1} a^{-j^{2}} z^{j}\in R^{*}\) for every \(k\in N\) if and only if \(a^{2}\geq q_{\infty}\) (ii) there exists a number \(N_{0}\in \mathbb{N}\) such that \(S_{2k}(z, g_{a}):= \sum_{j=0}^{2k} a^{-j^{2}}z^{j}\in R^{*}\) for all \(k\geq \mathbb{N}_{0}\) if and only if \(a^{2}> q_{\infty}\), and (iii) \(g_{a}(z)\) has only real zeros if and only if \(a^{2}\geq q_{\infty}\). The question about the sharp constant in Theorem 1 is open. Theorem 4 shows that this sharp constant is less than or equal to \(q_{\infty}\).