Widom factors (Q2345895)

Let \(K\) be a compact subset of the complex plane with positive logarithmic capacity \(\mathrm{Cap}(K)\) and let \(n\) be a positive integer. The \(n\)-th Widom factor of \(K\) is defined by \[ W_{n}(K)=\frac{||T_{n,K}||_{K}}{\mathrm{Cap}^{n}(K)}, \] where \(T_{n,K}\) is the \(n\)-th Chebyshev polynomial that corresponds to \(K\). It is well known that \(W_{n}(K)\geq 1\) and the sequence \((W_{n}(K))_{n=1}^{\infty}\) has subexponential growth. Also, \(W_{n}(K)\geq 2\) when \(K\) is a subset of the real line \(\mathbb R\). In the paper under review, the authors analyze the case of maximal growth of the Widom factors. They calculate the Widom factors for weakly equilibrium Cantor-type sets of \(\mathbb R\) previously introduced by the first author. They show that, for any monotone null sequence \((\sigma_{k})_{k=0}^{\infty}\) there is a Cantor set \(K\subset\mathbb R\) such that \(W_{2^{k}}(K)=2(1+\sigma_{k})\). They prove that, for any given sequence \((M_{n})_{n=0}^{\infty}\) of subexponential growth there is a Cantor-type set \(K\subset\mathbb R\) whose Widom factors exceed \(M_{n}\). Also, they construct sets with highly irregular behavior of Widom factors by proving that, given a sequence \((M_{n})_{n=0}^{\infty}\) of subexponential growth and a monotone null sequence \((\sigma_{n})_{n=0}^{\infty}\), there exists a Cantor-type set \(K\subset\mathbb R\) and subsequences \((W_{n_{l}}(K))_{l=1}^{\infty}\) and \((W_{n_{m}}(K))_{m=1}^{\infty}\) of \((W_{n}(K))_{n=1}^{\infty}\) such that \(W_{n_{l}}(K)>M_{l}\) and \(W_{n_{m}}(K)<2(1+\sigma_{m})\).