Hyperbolicity preservers and majorization (Q990232)

A polynomial in \(\mathbb{R}[z]\) is hyperbolic if it has only real zeros. Denote by \(\mathcal{H}_n\) the space of all hyperbolic polynomials of degree \(n\). Given a polynomial \(p \in \mathcal{H}_n\), arrange the zeros (counting multiplicities) of \(p\) in a weakly increasing vector \(\mathcal{Z}(p) \in \mathbb{R}^n\). Let \(p,q \in \mathcal{H}_n\), and let \(\mathcal{Z}(p)=(x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_n)\), \(\mathcal{Z}(q)=(y_1,y_2,\ldots,y_n)\). We will say that \(p\) is majorized by \(q\), denoted \(p\prec q\), if \(p\) and \(q\) have the same leading coefficient, \(\sum_{i=1}^{n} x_i = \sum_{i=1}^{n} y_i,\) and \(\sum_{i=0}^{k} x_{n-i} \leq \sum_{i=0}^{k} y_{n-i}\) for each \(0 \leq k \leq n-2\). Let \(\mathbb{R}_n[z]\) be the linear space of all real polynomials of degree at most \(n\). A linear operator \(T:\mathbb{R}_n[z] \rightarrow \mathbb{R}[z]\) preserves the majorization if \(T(p)\prec T(q)\) whenever \(p,q \in \mathcal{H}_n\) are such that \(p\prec q\). A polynomial \(p(z_1,z_2,\ldots,z_n)\in \mathbb{C}[z_1,z_2,\ldots,z_n]\) is stable if it is nonzero whenever all variables have positive imaginary part. The following theorem is the main result of the paper. Theorem. Suppose that \(T:\mathbb{R}_n[z] \rightarrow \mathbb{R}[z]\) is a linear operator, where \(n\geq 1.\) Then \(T\) preserves the majorization if and only if \(\quad\)(1) \(\dim (T(\mathbb{R}_n[z]))>2\) and \(T(\mathcal{H}_n)\subseteq \mathcal{H}_m\) for some \(m\), or \(\quad\)(2) \(T\) is of the form \(T\big(\sum_{k=0}^{n} a_k z^k\big)= a_n T(z^n) + a_{n-1} T(z^{n-1})\), where \(T(z^n) \not\equiv 0\) is hyperbolic, either \(T(z^{n-1}) \equiv 0\) or \(T(z^{n-1})\) is a hyperbolic polynomial which is not a constant multiple of \(T(z^n)\), and \(T(z^{n-1})\) and \(T(z^n)\) have interlacing zeros.