The Lee--Yang and Pólya--Schur programs. I: Linear operators preserving stability (Q834799)

If \(n\) is an integer and \(\Omega\subset\mathbb C\), a polynomial \(f\in\mathbb C[z_1,\dots,z_n]\) is said to be \(\Omega\)-stable if \(f(z_1,\dots,z_n)\not=0\) whenever \((z_1,\dots,z_n)\in\Omega\). For \(\mathbb K=\mathbb R\) or \(\mathbb C\), the authors investigate the following problem, which has previously been investigated in a large variety of special cases. \textit{Problem:} Characterize all linear operators \(T:\mathbb K[z_1,\dots,z_n]\to \mathbb K[z_1,\dots,z_n]\) that preserve \(\Omega\)-stability, where \(\Omega\) is a prescribed subset of \(\mathbb C\). They also study a parallel problem where the domain of the operator \(T\) is restricted to polynomials having prescribed (and possibly distinct) upper bounds for their degrees with respect to each variable. In analogy with terminology from mathematical physics, they refer to the latter version of the problem as ``hard'' (due to it having special constraints) versus the ``soft'' general version stated earlier. The actual results obtained require more technical definitions, and differ depending on the nature of the domains chosen but, speaking in general, the authors characterize the linear operators preserving \(\Omega\)-stability for a variety of open circular domains \(\Omega\). [Part~II has appeared in Commun.\ Pure Appl.\ Math.\ 62, No.\,12, 1595--1631 (2009; Zbl 1177.47041).]