Pólya-Schur master theorems for circular domains and their boundaries (Q2389222)

Let \(\Omega\subseteq \mathbb{C}\) be a closed circular domain (i.e., the image of the closed unit disk under a Möbius transformation) or its boundary. Denote by \(\pi(\Omega)\) the class of all (complex or real) univariate polynomials whose zeros lie in \(\Omega\), and by \(\pi_n(\Omega)\) the subclass of \(\pi(\Omega)\) consisting of polynomials of degree at most \( n\). In the paper, the following three problems are considered. Problem 1. Characterize all linear transformations \( T:\pi(\Omega) \to \pi(\Omega)\cup \{0\}.\) Problem 2. For \(n \in \mathbb{N}, \) describe all linear operators \( T:\pi_n(\Omega) \to \pi(\Omega)\cup \{0\}.\) Problem 3. For \(n \in \mathbb{N}, \) describe all linear operators \( T:\pi_n(\Omega)\setminus \pi_{n-1}(\Omega) \to \pi(\Omega)\cup \{0\}.\) The authors obtain exhaustive solutions of these problems. In particular, for \(\Omega = \{z \in \mathbb{C}: \Im(z)>0\}\), they give a description of all operators that preserve the property of polynomials to be stable. For \(\Omega =\mathbb{R}\), their results settle an open question on characterization of hyperbolicity preservers that goes back to Laguerre, Pólya, Schur. More precisely, they prove the following theorem. Theorem. A linear operator \(T:\mathbb{R}[z] \to \mathbb{R}[z]\) is an operator of the kind \(T:\pi(\mathbb{R}) \to \pi(\mathbb{R})\cup \{0\}\) if and only if one of the following holds: (a) \(T\) is of the form \(T(f)=\alpha (f)P+\beta (f)Q\), where \(\alpha, \beta: \mathbb{R}[z]\to \mathbb{R}\) are linear functionals, and \(P,Q \in \pi(\mathbb{R})\) have interlacing zeros; (b) for all \(n \in \mathbb{N}\), either the polynomial \(T[(z+w)^n]\neq 0\) for \((z,w) \in \{(z,w) \in \mathbb{C}^2: \Im z >0,\Im w >0\}\) or \(T[(z+w)^n]\equiv 0\); (c) for all \(n \in \mathbb{N}\), either the polynomial \(T[(z-w)^n]\neq 0\) for \((z,w) \in \{(z,w) \in \mathbb{C}^2: \Im z >0, \Im w >0\}\) or \(T[(z-w)^n]\equiv 0.\)