On the Widom factors for \(L_p\) extremal polynomials (Q2209294)

For \(0< p<\infty\), let \[ t_{p,n}(\mu):=\inf{\|P_n\|}_{L_p(\mu)}, \] where the infimum ist taken over all monic polynomials \(P_n\) of degree \(n\) and \({\|\cdot\|}_{L_p(\mu)}\) is the usual \(L_p\)-norm with respect to a finite (positive) Borel measure \(\mu\) with \(\operatorname{supp}(\mu)=K\) and \(K\subset{\mathbb C}\) compact. Furthermore, let \[ W_{p,n}(\mu):=t_{p,n}(\mu)/\operatorname{cap}(K) \] be the Widom factors, where \(\operatorname{cap}(K)\) denotes the logarithmic capacity and \(K\) is non-polar. Finally, let \[ S(\mu)=S_K(w):=\exp\Bigl(\int\log w(z)d\mu_K(z)\Bigr) \] be the exponential relative entropy of \(\mu\) relative to the equilibrium measure \(\mu_K\) of \(K\). For \(K\subset{\mathbb R}\), the authors prove that \[ \inf\bigl(W_{n,p}(\mu)\bigr)^p/S(\mu)=1, \] where the infimum is taken over all measures \(\mu\) with \(d\mu(z)=w(z)d\mu_K(z)\) and \(w(z)\) a polynomial positive on \(K\). They also study pull-back measures under polynomial pre-images and obtain invariance of the Widom factors for such measures. Finally, for the special case when \(K\) is a circular arc of length \(2\gamma\), say \(K=K_{\gamma}\), they show that \(W_{2,n}(\mu_{K_{\gamma}})\) is strictly monotone increasing with \(n\) and strictly monotone decreasing with \(\gamma\).