On Legendre multiplier sequences (Q263930)

Given a basis \(Q=\{q_k\}_{k=0}^{\infty}\) in \(\mathbb{R}[x]\) and a sequence of real numbers \(\{\gamma_k\}_{k=0}^{\infty},\) one can define a linear operator \(T\) on \(\mathbb{R}[x]\) by declaring \(T[q_k(x)]=\gamma_k q_k(x)\), \( k=0,1,2, \ldots\). The sequence \(\{\gamma_k\}_{k=0}^{\infty}\) is called a \(Q\)-\textit{multiplier sequence} if \(T[p]\) has only real zeros whenever \(p\) has only real zeros. The paper focuses on the set of Legendre polynomials \(\mathfrak{Le} _n(x)=\frac{1}{2^nn!}D^n[(x^2-1)^n], \;n=0,1,2,\ldots\). The authors prove that there are no linear Legendre multiplier sequences, i.e., \(\{k+\alpha\}_{k=0}^{\infty}\) is not a Legendre multiplier sequence for any \(\alpha \in \mathbb{R}.\) They also show that \(\{k^2+\alpha k+\beta \}_{k=0}^{\infty}\) is a Legendre multiplier sequence if and only if \(\alpha =1\) and \(\beta \in [0,1].\) So, the set of all Legendre multiplier sequences and the set of all generalized Laguerre multiplier sequences have nonempty intersection, but neither of them is a subset of the other. The fact that the set of all Legendre multiplier sequences forms a strict subset of the set of Hermite multiplier sequences is also obtained. The authors conclude the paper with a list of open questions.