On sieved orthogonal polynomials. VI: Differential equations (Q2640001)

If \(\{P_ n(x)\}\) are orthogonal with respect to a positive weight function w(x) and [log w(x)]\({}'\) is a rational function of x, then \(P_ n(x)\) satisfies a second order linear differential equation with polynomial coefficients. The degrees of these coefficients are bounded functions of n, but these polynomial coefficients can depend on n. There were two methods to compute these equations, but neither is easy to use. The authors develop a new method and then, to illustrate how it can be used, they find a second order equation satisfied by \(P_ n(x)\) when \(w(x)=\sin \theta | \sin k\theta |^{2\lambda}\), \(x=\cos \theta\), \(\lambda\) and k fixed. Their method is applicable to some other sets of sieved orthogonal polynomials if it turns out to be necessary to treat them.