On a polynomial inequality (Q2518284)

Let \(\mathcal P_n\) be the linear space of polynomials \(p(z) =\sum_{k=0}^na_k(p)z^k\) with complex coefficients of degree at most \(n\). Let \(\mathcal P_n^e\) be the subset of \(\mathcal P_n\) consisting of the polynomials of exact degree \(n\). Let also \(p\in\mathcal P_n^e\) and \(q\in\mathcal P_d\) with \(d < n\). Rahman proved that under the assumption \(| p(z)| <| q(z)| \), \(| z| <1\), there holds \[ | a_0(p)| + | a_n(p)| \leqslant| a_0(q)| . \] In this paper, the author improves the above inequality and discusses several sharpness aspects, including all cases of equality. A pair of polynomials \((P, Q)\) is called an extremal pair iff, given a set of nodes \(\{z_j\}_{j=1}^n\subset\partial\mathbb D\) and \(W(z) =\prod_{j=1}^n(1-z_jz)\) we have \[ Q(z)= a_0(Q)W(z)\sum_{j=1}^n\frac{\ell_j}{1-z_jz}\quad \text{and}\quad P(z)=\xi(Q(z)-ta_0(Q)W(z)), \] where \(0 <t\leqslant 1\), \(\xi\in\partial\mathbb D\), \(a_0(Q)\) is a non-zero complex number and each \(\ell_j\) is non-negative with \(\sum_{j=1}^n\ell_j=1\). The author proves the following: Let \(0\leqslant k\leqslant n-1\) and \(| p(z)| <| q(z)| \), \(| z| <1\), where \(p\in\mathcal P_n^e\) and \(q\in\mathcal P_{n-k-1}\). Then 1) for \(k=0\), \(| a_0(p)| +| a_n(p)| =| a_0(q)| \) iff the pair \((p, q)\) is an extremal pair; 2) for \(0< k\leqslant n-1\), the inequality \(| a_0(p)| +| a_{n-k}(p)| \left/\binom nk\right.\leqslant| a_0(q)| \) is always strict.