Recurrence coefficients for orthogonal polynomials with a logarithmic weight function (Q6192136)

In their paper, the authors delve into the study of orthogonal polynomials, specifically focusing on those with the orthogonality measure given by a weight function \(w(x) \mathrm{d} x\), defined as: \[ w(x) \mathrm{d} x=\log \left(\frac{2}{1-x}\right) \mathrm{d} x, \quad x \in[-1,1) . \] This weight function exhibits a logarithmic singularity as \(x\) approaches \(+1\) and a simple zero at \(x = -1\). The authors denote the corresponding orthonormal polynomials as \(\left\{p_n\right\}_{n=0}^{\infty}\), which satisfy the standard orthonormality condition: \[ \int_{-1}^1 p_m(x) p_n(x) w(x) \mathrm{d} x=\delta_{m n}, \quad m, n \in \mathbb{N} . \] The authors derive a three-term recurrence relation for these polynomials: \[ x p_n(x)=b_n p_{n+1}(x)+a_n p_n(x)+b_{n-1} p_{n-1}(x), \quad n \geq 1, \] where \(a_n \in \mathbb{R}\) and \(b_n>0\). They establish the large \(n\) asymptotics of the recurrence coefficients \(a_n\) and \(b_n\) as the central theme of their investigation. Their main result, Theorem 1.1, provides explicit expressions for these coefficients as \(n \rightarrow \infty\): \[ a_n=\frac{1}{4 n^2}-\frac{3}{16 n^2 \log ^2 n}+O\left(\frac{1}{n^2 \log ^3 n}\right) \] \[ b_n=\frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{16 n^2}-\frac{3}{32 n^2 \log ^2 n}+O\left(\frac{1}{n^2 \log ^3 n}\right). \] Furthermore, the authors contextualize their findings within a broader conjecture by \textit{A. P. Magnus} [J. Approx. Theory 228, 21--57 (2018; Zbl 1386.65096)], which encompasses continuous weight functions with logarithmic singularities.