Sharpening of Hilbert's lemniscate theorem (Q816476)

Let \(\gamma_j,\Gamma_j, j=1,\dots,m\) be Jordan curves in the complex plane, \(\gamma_j\) lying interior to \(\Gamma_j\) and the \(\Gamma_j\)'s lying exterior to one other. Then Hilbert's lemniscate theorem asserts that there is a lemniscate \(\sigma\), i.e., a level curve \(\sigma=\{z:| T_N(z)| =1\}\) of a polynomial \(T_N\), which separates each \(\gamma_j\) from the corresponding \(\Gamma_j\). In the paper under review this theorem is generalized to the case where the curves \(\gamma_j\) and \(\Gamma_j\) may touch each other at finitely many points. The main theorem: The curves \(\gamma_j,\Gamma_j\) are assumed to be twice continuously differentiable near each common point \(P\) and their (signed) curvature at \(P\) is different. Then there exists a lemniscate \(\sigma\) which has precisely one connected component \(\sigma_j\) between \(\gamma_j\) and \(\Gamma_j\). This component lies strictly between \(\gamma_j\) and \(\Gamma_j\) except for the points where these two curves touch. This result is used to prove sharp estimates of Bernstein type for the derivatives of polynomials on compact sets.