The zeros of linear combinations of orthogonal polynomials (Q2581439)

Let \(\mu\) be a positive Borel measure on \({\mathbb R}\) such that \(L^2(\mu)\) contains all real polynomials and \text{card\,}\((\)\text{ supp\,}\(\mu)=\infty\). If \(c_1,\ldots,c_n\) are real numbers, \(c_1<c_2<\dots<c_n\), then the \textit{Cotes numbers} \(\lambda_1,\ldots,\lambda_n\) are defined by the rule \[ \lambda_j=\int \pi_j\,d\mu,\qquad j=1,\ldots,n , \] where \(\pi_j\) is the unique polynomial of degree \(n-1\) with the properties \(\pi_j(c_j)=1\) and \(\pi_j(c_k)=0\) when \(k\neq j\). Write \(\omega(x)=(x-c_1)\cdots(x-c_n)\). Recall that a natural number \(d(\omega,\mu)\) is the degree of the precision of \((\omega,\mu)\) if the quadrature formula \[ \int P\,d\mu=\sum_{j=1}^n \lambda_jP(c_j) \] holds for all polynomials \(P\) of degree \(d(\omega,\mu)\) but not for all polynomials of higher degree. The following result is proved. Let \(\{P_k\}_{k=0}^\infty\) be the sequence of the monic \(\mu\)-orthogonal polynomials, \text{ deg}\(\,P_k=k\), and \[ P_{s,m}=a_sP_s+\cdots+a_mP_m \tag{1} \] where \(a_sa_m\neq0\), \(1\leq s\leq m\leq \min\{\text{deg\,}\omega, d(\omega,\mu)\}\). Suppose that all of the Cotes numbers \(\lambda_1,\ldots,\lambda_n\) are positive. Then either \(P_{s,m}\) is a non-zero scalar multiple of \(\omega\), or at least \(N\) of the intervals \((c_j,c_{j+1})\) contain a zero of \(P_{s,m}\), where \[ N=\min\{s,d(\omega,\mu)+1-m\}\geq1. \] This result is applied to the study of the interlacing of the zeros of the linear combination (1) with the zeros of \(P_n\). Let \(a_sa_m\neq0,\;1\leq s\leq m\leq n\) and \(s<n\). If \(x_1,\ldots,x_n\) are the zeros of \(P_n\) with \(x_1<\dots<x_n,\) then there are at least \(s\) disjoint intervals \((x_j,x_{j+1})\) that contain at least one zero of \(P_{s,m}\). It implies, in particular, the well-known Stieltjes' result on the interlacing of zeros of two distinct orthogonal polynomials. The interlacing of zeros of two distinct linear combinations of adjacent orthogonal polynomials is also considered.