Zeros of the partial sums of \(\cos(z)\) and \(\sin(z)\). II (Q5956190)

Distribution of zeros of partial sums and tails of power series has been studied by many authors including the present ones [see \textit{A. Edrei, E. Saff} and \textit{R. S. Varga}, Zeros of sections of power series, Lecture Notes in Mathematics. 1002 (1983; Zbl 0507.30001)]. The current developments are reviewed in a beautiful survey by \textit{I. Ostrovskij} [Isr. Math. Conf. Proceedings 15, 297-310 (2001; Zbl 0994.30002)]. The first examples to study are, clearly, the partial sums of \(\exp (z)\) and \(\cos(z)\) (or \(\sin (z)\), i.e., \(e_n (z)= \sum _{j=0} ^n z^j /j!\) and \(\cos _n (z) = \sum _{j=0} ^{n/2} (-z^2)^j / (2j)!, n\) is even. \textit{G. Szegő} [Sitzungsber. Math. Berl. Ges. 23, 50-64 (1924; JFM 50.0257.01)] proved that the zeros of normalized polynomials \(e_n (nz)\) converge to the so-called Szegő curve \(D_{\infty } = \{z \mid |ze^1-z|=1\), \(|z|\leq 1 \}\) while the zeros of \(\cos _n (nz)\) (and the similar conclusion for \(\sin (z)\)) approach \(i D_{\infty } \cup [-1/e, 1/e]\), which explains, in part, why \(e^z\) has no roots while \(\cos (z)\) has roots. In the paper under review the authors improve some known results and draw a refined picture of the distribution of zeros of \(e_n (nz)\) and \(\cos _n (nz)\) and their asymptotic behavior as \(n \rightarrow \infty \). Thus, if \(z_{n,1}\) is the largest real zero of \(\cos _n (nz)\), then (Szegő, loc. cit.) \[ \lim _{n \rightarrow \infty , n {\text{ is even}}} (z_{n,1} -1/_e) = 0. \] The authors show that \[ \limsup {n \rightarrow \infty , n {\text{ is even}}}\left(\frac{n}{\log n} \text{dist} [z_{n,1} , 1/e] \right) \leq \frac{1}{2e}. \] The paper contains many numerical computations of the zeros.