Orthogonal polynomials and Christoffel functions for \(\text{exp}(- | x|)^ \alpha\), \(\alpha\leq 1\) (Q1890565)

There has recently been a lot of activity concerning orthogonal polynomials and Christoffel functions for weights that include among others exponential weights \(W(x)= \exp(- |x|^\alpha)\), \(\alpha> 1\). The assumption \(\alpha> 1\) is a technical one, but earlier methods worked only under this assumption. The same problems need new methods and turn out to be more difficult when \(0< \alpha\leq 1\). In this paper, this extension of the previous results to \(\alpha\leq 1\) is carried out. The authors proves exact asymptotics for the Christoffel function on the whole range (and a little outside) of the Mhaskar-Rahmanov-Saff interval. This asymptotics is of the form \[ \lambda_n(W^2, x)\sim \Lambda_n(x) W^2(x), \] where \(\Lambda_n\) is the explicitly given function \(n^{1/\alpha- 1} \max\{n^{- 2/3}, 1- |x|/a_n\}^{- 1/2}\) (here \(a_n\) is the Mhaskar-Rahmanov-Saff number). As a corollary sharp estimates for the largest zero and for the difference of consecutive zeros of the associated orthogonal polynomials are deduced, as well as with asymptotics for the supremum norms of the (weighted) polynomials, themselves. The proofs are difficult and long, and along them many interesting other results are proven. This is a truly outstanding research paper that exhibits most of the techniques found in the literature together with fine new ideas.