How bad are Hankel matrices?

Summary. Considered are Hankel, Vandermonde, and Krylov basis matrices. It is proved that for any real positive definite Hankel matrix of order , its spectral condition number is bounded from below by . Also proved is that the spectral condition number of a Krylov basis matrix is bounded from below by . For , a Vandermonde matrix with arbitrary but pairwise distinct nodes , we show that ; if either or for all , then . Received January 24, 1993/Revised version received July 19, 1993