Abstract: To each nonzero sequence of real numbers we associate the Hankel determinants of the Hankel matrices , , and the nonempty set . We also define the Hankel determinant polynomials , and , as the determinant of the Hankel matrix modified by replacing the last row by the monomials . Clearly is a polynomial of degree at most and of degree if and only if . Kronecker established in 1881 that if is finite then rank for each , where . By using an approach suggested by I.S.Iohvidov in 1969 we give a short proof of this result and a transparent proof of the conditions on a real sequence to be of the form , for a real sequence . This is the Hankel determinant problem. We derive from the Kronecker identities that each Hankel determinant polynomial satisfying deg is preceded by a nonzero polynomial whose degree can be strictly less than and which has no common zeros with . As an application of our results we obtain a new proof of a recent theorem by Berg and Szwarc about positive semidefiniteness of all Hankel matrices provided that and for all .
