On the Pólya-Wiman properties of differential operators (Q891381)

Let \(\phi(x) = \sum_{n=0}^\infty\alpha_n x^n\) be a formal power series with real coefficients, and let \(D\) denote differentiation. An entire function \(f\) belongs to \(\text{dom}\,\phi(D)\) if the series \(\phi(D)f:=\sum_{n=0}^\infty\alpha_n f^{(n)}\) converges uniformly on the compact subsets of the complex plane. For \(m\geq2\), let \(\text{dom}\,\phi(D)^m\) be the class of entire functions \(f\) such that \(f, \phi(D)f,\dots, \phi(D)^{m-1}f\in\,\text{dom}\,\phi(D)\). In the paper, several versions of the Polya-Wiman theorem for the operator \(\phi(D)\) are obtained. The main statements are the following. 1) If \(\phi(0)\neq0\) and \(\phi''(0)\phi(0)-\phi'(0)^2<0\), then for every real polynomial \(f\) there is a positive integer \(m_0\) such that all zeros of \(\phi(D)^m f\) are real and simple whenever \(m \geq m_0\). 2) If \(\phi(0)\neq0\), \(\phi''(0)\phi(0)-\phi'(0)^2\geq0\), \(\phi\) is not of the form \(\phi(x) =ce^{\gamma x}\) with \(c\neq0\), \(f\) is a real polynomial, and \[ \text{deq}\, f\geq\min\{n\geq2:\phi^{(n)}(0)\phi(0)^{n-1}\neq\phi'(0)^n\}\,, \] then there is a positive integer \(m_0\) such that \(Z_C(\phi(D)^mf) >0\) for all \(m \geq m_0\), where \(Z_C(f)\) denotes the number of nonreal zeros (counting multiplicities) of \(f\). It is also proved that, if \(\phi\) is a formal power series with real coefficients and \(\phi\) does not represent a Laguerre-Pólya function, then \(\phi\) does not have the Pólya-Wiman property with respect to some (transcendental) Laguerre-Pólya function of genus 0, although it has this property with respect to arbitrary real polynomials.