The distribution of the zeros of certain orthogonal polynomials (Q583542)

Let \(p_ n(x)\) be a sequence of monic orthogonal polynomials satisfying the three-term recurrence relation \(p_{n+1}(x)=(x-a_ n)p_ n(x)-b_ np_{n-1}(x).\) It is well known that, when \(a_ n\to a\) and \(b_ n\to b>0\), the asymptotic distribution of the zeros of these polynomials is given by the arcsin distribution on [a-2\(\sqrt{b},a+2\sqrt{b}]\). The present paper shows that when the recurrence coefficients are ``nearly constant'', i.e. \(\#\{a_ k,\quad 0\leq k\leq n:\quad a_ k\neq a\}=o(n),\) \(\#\{b_ k,\quad 1\leq k\leq n:\quad b_ k\neq b\}=o(n),\) then the asymptotic distribution of the zeros is again arcsin on the same interval. The proof is very neat and uses inequalities for the eigenvalues of matrices obtained by deleting rows and corresponding columns of a tridiagonal matrix.