Askey-Wilson relations and Leonard pairs

It is known that if (A,A^*) is a Leonard pair, then the linear transformations A, A^* satisfy the Askey-Wilson relations

     

Balanced Leonard pairs

Let K denote a field, and let V denote a vector space over K with finite positive dimension. By a Leonard pair on V we mean an ordered pair of linear transformations A : V → V and A^∗ : V → V that satisfy the following two conditions:

(i)

There exists a basis for V with respect to which the matrix representing A is irreducible tridiagonal and the matrix representing A^∗ is diagonal.

(ii)

There exists a basis for V with respect to which the matrix representing A^∗ is irreducible tridiagonal and the matrix representing A is diagonal.

Let (respectively v₀, v₁, … , v_d) denote a basis for V that satisfies (i) (respectively (ii)). For 0 ? i ? d, let a_i denote the coefficient of , when we write as a linear combination of , and let denote the coefficient of v_i, when we write A^∗v_i as a linear combination of v₀, v₁, … , v_d.In this paper we show a₀ = a_d if and only if . Moreover we show that for d ? 1 the following are equivalent; (i) a₀ = a_d and a₁ = a_d−1; (ii) and ; (iii) a_i = a_d−i and for 0 ? i ? d. These give a proof of a conjecture by the second author. We say A, A^∗ is balanced whenever a_i = a_d−i and for 0 ? i ? d. We say A,A^∗ is essentially bipartite (respectively essentially dual bipartite) whenever a_i (respectively ) is independent of i for 0 ? i ? d. Observe that if A, A^∗ is essentially bipartite or dual bipartite, then A, A^∗ is balanced. For d ≠ 2, we show that if A, A^∗ is balanced then A, A^∗ is essentially bipartite or dual bipartite.     

The switching element for a Leonard pair

Let V denote a vector space with finite positive dimension. We consider a pair of linear transformations A:V→V and A^∗:V→V that satisfy (i) and (ii) below:

(i)

There exists a basis for V with respect to which the matrix representing A is irreducible tridiagonal and the matrix representing A^∗ is diagonal.

(ii)

There exists a basis for V with respect to which the matrix representing A^∗ is irreducible tridiagonal and the matrix representing A is diagonal.

We call such a pair a Leonard pair on V. Let (resp. ) denote a basis for V referred to in (i) (resp. (ii)). We show that there exists a unique linear transformation S:V→V that sends v₀ to a scalar multiple of v_d, fixes w₀, and sends w_i to a scalar multiple of w_i for 1?i?d. We call S the switching element. We describe S from many points of view.     

Some trace formulae involving the split sequences of a Leonard pair

Let K denote a field, and let V denote a vector space over K with finite positive dimension. We consider a pair of linear transformations A : V → V and A^∗ : V → V that satisfy (i) and (ii) below:

(i)

There exists a basis for V with respect to which the matrix representing A is irreducible tridiagonal and the matrix representing A^∗ is diagonal.

(ii)

There exists a basis for V with respect to which the matrix representing A^∗ is irreducible tridiagonal and the matrix representing A is diagonal.

We call such a pair a Leonard pair on V. Let diag(θ₀, θ₁, … , θ_d) denote the diagonal matrix referred to in (ii) above and let denote the diagonal matrix referred to in (i) above. It is known that there exists a basis u₀, u₁, … , u_d for V and there exist scalars ?₁, ?₂, … , ?_d in K such that Au_i = θ_iu_i + u_i+1 (0 ? i ? d − 1), Au_d = θ_du_d, , . The sequence ?₁, ?₂, … , ?_d is called the first split sequence of the Leonard pair. It is known that there exists a basis v₀, v₁, … , v_d for V and there exist scalars ?₁, ?₂, … , ?_d in K such that Av_i = θ_d−iv_i + v_i+1 (0 ? i ? d − 1),Av_d = θ₀v_d, , . The sequence ?₁, ?₂, … , ?_d is called the second split sequence of the Leonard pair. We display some attractive formulae for the first and second split sequence that involve the trace function.     

Linear transformations that are tridiagonal with respect to both eigenbases of a Leonard pair

Let V denote a vector space with finite positive dimension. We consider a pair of linear transformations A : V → V and A^∗ : V → V that satisfy (i) and (ii) below:

(i)

There exists a basis for V with respect to which the matrix representing A is irreducible tridiagonal and the matrix representing A^∗ is diagonal.

(ii)

There exists a basis for V with respect to which the matrix representing A^∗ is irreducible tridiagonal and the matrix representing A is diagonal.

We call such a pair a Leonard pair on V. Let X denote the set of linear transformations X : V → V such that the matrix representing X with respect to the basis (i) is tridiagonal and the matrix representing X with respect to the basis (ii) is tridiagonal. We show that X is spanned by

     

The structure of a tridiagonal pair

Let K denote a field and let V denote a vector space over K with finite positive dimension.We consider a pair of K-linear transformations A:V→V and A^∗:V→V that satisfy the following conditions: (i) each of A,A^∗ is diagonalizable; (ii) there exists an ordering of the eigenspaces of A such that A^∗V_i⊆V_i-1+V_i+V_i+1 for 0?i?d, where V_-1=0 and V_d+1=0; (iii) there exists an ordering of the eigenspaces of A^∗ such that for 0?i?δ, where and ; (iv) there is no subspace W of V such that AW⊆W,A^∗W⊆W,W≠0,W≠V.We call such a pair a tridiagonal pair on V. It is known that d=δ and for 0?i?d the dimensions of coincide.In this paper we show that the following (i)-(iv) hold provided that K is algebraically closed: (i) Each of has dimension 1.(ii) There exists a nondegenerate symmetric bilinear form 〈,〉 on V such that 〈Au,v〉=〈u,Av〉 and 〈A^∗u,v〉=〈u,A^∗v〉 for all u,v∈V.(iii) There exists a unique anti-automorphism of End(V) that fixes each of A,A^∗.(iv) The pair A,A^∗ is determined up to isomorphism by the data , where θ_i (resp.) is the eigenvalue of A (resp.A^∗) on V_i (resp.), and is the split sequence of A,A^∗ corresponding to and .     

Askey-Wilson polynomials and the quantum SU(2) group: Survey and applications

Generalised matrix elements of the irreducible representations of the quantum SU(2) group are defined using certain orthonormal bases of the representation space. The generalised matrix elements are relatively infinitesimal invariant with respect to Lie algebra like elements of the quantised universal enveloping algebra of sl(2). A full proof of the theorem announced by Noumi and Mimachi [Proc. Japan Acad. Sci. Ser. A 66 (1990), 146–149] describing the generalised matrix elements in terms of the full four-parameter family of Askey-Wilson polynomials is given. Various known and new applications of this interpretation are presented.Supported by a NATO-Science Fellowship of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).     

Zonal spherical functions on the complex reflection groups and (n+1,m+1)-hypergeometric functions

The pair of groups, complex reflection group G(r,1,n) and symmetric group S_n, is a Gelfand pair. Its zonal spherical functions are expressed in terms of multivariate hypergeometric functions called (n+1,m+1)-hypergeometric functions. Since the zonal spherical functions have orthogonality, they form discrete orthogonal polynomials. Also shown is a relation between monomial symmetric functions and the (n+1,m+1)-hypergeometric functions.     

General recurrence and ladder relations of hypergeometric-type functions

A method for the explicit construction of general linear sum rules involving hypergeometric-type functions and their derivatives of any order is developed. This method only requires the knowledge of the coefficients of the differential equation that they satisfy, namely the hypergeometric-type differential equation. Special attention is paid to the differential-recurrence or ladder relations and to the fundamental three-term recurrence formulas. Most recurrence and ladder relations published in the literature for numerous special functions including the classical orthogonal polynomials, are instances of these sum rules. Moreover, an extension of the method to the generalized hypergeometric-type functions is also described, allowing us to obtain explicit ladder operators for the radial wave functions of multidimensional hydrogen-like atoms, where the varying parameter is the dimensionality.     

Zeros of entire functions and a problem of Ramanujan

We derive representations for certain entire q-functions and apply our technique to the Ramanujan entire function (or q-Airy function) and q-Bessel functions. This is used to show that the asymptotic series of the large zeros of the Ramanujan entire function and similar functions are also convergent series. The idea is to show that the zeros of the functions under consideration satisfy a nonlinear integral equation.     

Some remarks on the construction of quantum symmetric spaces

We present a general survey of some recent developments regarding the construction of compact quantum symmetric spaces and the analysis of their zonal spherical functions in terms of q-orthogonal polynomials. In particular, we define a one-parameter family of two-sided coideals in U _q(g(n, )) and express the zonal spherical functions on the corresponding quantum projective spaces as Askey-Wilson polynomials containing two continuous and one discrete parameter.The author acknowledges financial support by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).     

Bezoutians, Euclidean Algorithm, and Orthogonal Polynomials

We prove a quadratic expression for the Bezoutian of two univariate polynomials in terms of the remainders for the Euclidean algorithm. In case of two polynomials of the same degree, or of consecutive degrees, this allows us to interpret their Bezoutian as the Christoffel- Darboux kernel for a finite family of orthogonal polynomials, arising from the Euclidean algorithm. We give orthogonality properties of remainders, and reproducing properties of Bezoutians. Received December 13, 2004     

Subpancyclicity of line graphs and degree sums along paths

A graph is called subpancyclic if it contains a cycle of length ? for each ? between 3 and the circumference of the graph. We show that if G is a connected graph on n?146 vertices such that d(u)+d(v)+d(x)+d(y)>(n+10/2) for all four vertices u,v,x,y of any path P=uvxy in G, then the line graph L(G) is subpancyclic, unless G is isomorphic to an exceptional graph. Moreover, we show that this result is best possible, even under the assumption that L(G) is hamiltonian. This improves earlier sufficient conditions by a multiplicative factor rather than an additive constant.     

A characterization of the classical orthogonal discrete and q-polynomials

In this paper we present a new characterization for the classical discrete and q$q$-classical (discrete) polynomials (in the Hahn's sense).     

On A Hypergraph Turán Problem Of Frankl

Let be the 2k-uniform hypergraph obtained by letting P₁, . . .,P_r be pairwise disjoint sets of size k and taking as edges all sets P_i∪P_j with i ≠ j. This can be thought of as the ‘k-expansion’ of the complete graph K_r: each vertex has been replaced with a set of size k. An example of a hypergraph with vertex set V that does not contain can be obtained by partitioning V = V1 ∪V₂ and taking as edges all sets of size 2k that intersect each of V₁ and V₂ in an odd number of elements. Let denote a hypergraph on n vertices obtained by this construction that has as many edges as possible. For n sufficiently large we prove a conjecture of Frankl, which states that any hypergraph on n vertices that contains no has at most as many edges as . Sidorenko has given an upper bound of for the Tur′an density of for any r, and a construction establishing a matching lower bound when r is of the form 2^p+1. In this paper we also show that when r=2^p+1, any -free hypergraph of density looks approximately like Sidorenko’s construction. On the other hand, when r is not of this form, we show that corresponding constructions do not exist and improve the upper bound on the Turán density of to , where c(r) is a constant depending only on r. The backbone of our arguments is a strategy of first proving approximate structure theorems, and then showing that any imperfections in the structure must lead to a suboptimal configuration. The tools for its realisation draw on extremal graph theory, linear algebra, the Kruskal–Katona theorem and properties of Krawtchouck polynomials. * Research supported in part by NSF grants DMS-0355497, DMS-0106589, and by an Alfred P. Sloan fellowship.     

The asymptotics of the generalised Hermite-Bell polynomials

The Hermite-Bell polynomials are defined by for n=0,1,2,… and integer r≥2 and generalise the classical Hermite polynomials corresponding to r=2. We obtain an asymptotic expansion for as n→∞ using the method of steepest descents. For a certain value of x, two saddle points coalesce and a uniform approximation in terms of Airy functions is given to cover this situation. An asymptotic approximation for the largest positive zeros of is derived as n→∞. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the accuracy of the various expansions.     

Discrete orthogonal polynomials and difference equations of several variables

The goal of this work is to characterize all second order difference operators of several variables that have discrete orthogonal polynomials as eigenfunctions. Under some mild assumptions, we give a complete solution of the problem.     

The structure relation for Askey–Wilson polynomials

An explicit structure relation for Askey–Wilson polynomials is given. This involves a divided q-difference operator which is skew symmetric with respect to the Askey–Wilson inner product and which sends polynomials of degree n   to polynomials of degree n+1$n+1$. By specialization of parameters and by taking limits, similar structure relations, as well as lowering and raising relations, can be obtained for other families in the q-Askey scheme and the Askey scheme. This is explicitly discussed for Jacobi polynomials, continuous q-Jacobi polynomials, continuous q-ultraspherical polynomials, and for big q-Jacobi polynomials. An already known structure relation for this last family can be obtained from the new structure relation by using the three-term recurrence relation and the second order q-difference formula. The results are also put in the framework of a more general theory. Their relationship with earlier work by Zhedanov and Bangerezako is discussed. There is also a connection with the string equation in discrete matrix models and with the Sklyanin algebra.