On the distribution of Rudin-Shapiro polynomials and lacunary walks on \(\mathrm{SU}(2)\) (Q2411349)

The Rudin-Shapiro polynomials are defined inductively as follows: \(P_0 (z) = Q_0 (z) = 1\), \[ P_{k+1} (z) = P_k (z) + z^{2^k} Q_k (z), \] \[ Q_{k+1} (z) = P_k (z) - z^{2^k} Q_k (z). \] Let \(\omega\) be a random variable distributed uniformly on the unit circle \(|\omega | = 1\). The author proves the conjectures by Saffari (1980; see [\textit{C. Doche} and \textit{L. Habsieger}, J. Fourier Anal. Appl. 10, No. 5, 497--505 (2004; Zbl 1161.11315)] and \textit{H. L. Montgomery}, [Number theory: In Honor of Krishna Alladi's 60-th birthday, in: Springer Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics 221. Springer (2017)], regarding the limit behavior of \(P_k(\omega )\), as \(k\to \infty\). The proof proceeds by relating the above distribution to that of a product of weakly dependent random matrices, analyzed using the representation theory of \(\mathrm{SU}(2)\). This approach leads also to a non-commutative version of the central limit theorem of \textit{R. Salem} and \textit{A. Zygmund} for lacunary trigonometric series [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 33, 333--338 (1947; Zbl 0029.11902)].