Interlacing of zeros of Gegenbauer polynomials of non-consecutive degree from different sequences

A theorem due to Stieltjes’ states that if \({\{p_n\}_{n=0}^\infty}\) is any orthogonal sequence then, between any two consecutive zeros of p _k , there is at least one zero of p _n whenever k < n, a property called Stieltjes interlacing. We show that Stieltjes interlacing extends to the zeros of Gegenbauer polynomials \({C_{n+1}^{\lambda}}\) and \({C_{n-1}^{\lambda+t}}\), \({\lambda > -\frac 12}\), if 0 < t ≤ k + 1, and also to the zeros of \({C_{n+1}^{\lambda}}\) and \({C_{n-2}^{\lambda +k}}\) if \({k\in\{1,2,3\}}\). More generally, we prove that Stieltjes interlacing holds between the zeros of the kth derivative of \({C_{n}^{\lambda}}\) and the zeros of \({C_{n+1}^{\lambda}}\), \({k\in\{1,2,\dots,n-1\}}\) and we derive associated polynomials that play an analogous role to the de Boor–Saff polynomials in completing the interlacing process of the zeros.