Zero-free neighborhoods around the unit circle for Kac polynomials (Q2151145)

The so called \(z\)-transform, a particular case of which is the discrete Fourier transform, is an important tool in signal analysis and speech recognition. In this context, the study of the zeros of \(z\)-transforms provides useful information on a signal. The existence of a free of zeros region around the unit circle is important for the proper behaviour of the \(z\)-transform. In this paper, the authors find a region free of zeros around the unit circle for Kac polynomials, which are closely related to the discrete Fourier transform. The Kac polynomial is defined as the random polynomial with independent and identically distributed nondegenerate real coefficients (iid rcs, in short). The paper demonstrates how close the roots of a Kac polynomial are from the unit circle. To be more precise, when the iid rcs of a Kac polynomial have zero mean and finite second moment, the majority of the roots are at a distance of order \(O(n^{-2}(\log n)^{-3})\) from the unit circle, with probability \(1-O((\log n)^{-1/2})\).