On Asymptotics of Polynomial Eigenfunctions for Exactly-Solvable Differential Operators

In this paper we study the asymptotic zero distribution of eigenpolynomials for degenerate exactly-solvable operators. We present an explicit conjecture and partial results on the growth of the largest modulus of the roots of the unique and monic n:th degree eigenpolynomial of any such operator as the degree n tends to infinity. Based on this conjecture we deduce the algebraic equation satified by the Cauchy transform of the asymptotic root measure of the properly scaled eigenpolynomials, for which the union of all roots is conjecturally contained in a compact set.Comment: 36 pages, 37 figures, to appear in Journal of Approximation Theor

Tropical bounds for eigenvalues of matrices

We show that for all k = 1,...,n the absolute value of the product of the k largest eigenvalues of an n-by-n matrix A is bounded from above by the product of the k largest tropical eigenvalues of the matrix |A| (entrywise absolute value), up to a combinatorial constant depending only on k and on the pattern of the matrix. This generalizes an inequality by Friedland (1986), corresponding to the special case k = 1.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figur

A rectangular additive convolution for polynomials

We define the rectangular additive convolution of polynomials with nonnegative real roots as a generalization of the asymmetric additive convolution introduced by Marcus, Spielman and Srivastava. We then prove a sliding bound on the largest root of this convolution. The main tool used in the analysis is a differential operator derived from the "rectangular Cauchy transform" introduced by Benaych-Georges. The proof is inductive, with the base case requiring a new nonasymptotic bound on the Cauchy transform of Gegenbauer polynomials which may be of independent interest

Counting Perron Numbers by Absolute Value

We count various classes of algebraic integers of fixed degree by their largest absolute value. The classes of integers considered include all algebraic integers, Perron numbers, totally real integers, and totally complex integers. We give qualitative and quantitative results concerning the distribution of Perron numbers, answering in part a question of W. Thurston.Comment: This work represents, in part, the PhD thesis of the second autho

Abelian Spiders

If G is a finite graph, then the largest eigenvalue L of the adjacency matrix of G is a totally real algebraic integer (L is the Perron-Frobenius eigenvalue of G). We say that G is abelian if the field generated by L^2 is abelian. Given a fixed graph G and a fixed set of vertices of G, we define a spider graph to be a graph obtained by attaching to each of the chosen vertices of G some 2-valent trees of finite length. The main result is that only finitely many of the corresponding spider graphs are both abelian and not Dynkin diagrams, and that all such spiders can be effectively enumerated; this generalizes a previous result of Calegari, Morrison, and Snyder. The main theorem has applications to the classification of finite index subfactors. We also prove that the set of Salem numbers of "abelian type" is discrete.Comment: This work represents, in part, the PhD thesis of the second autho

Approximating the Largest Root and Applications to Interlacing Families

We study the problem of approximating the largest root of a real-rooted polynomial of degree $n$ using its top $k$ coefficients and give nearly matching upper and lower bounds. We present algorithms with running time polynomial in $k$ that use the top $k$ coefficients to approximate the maximum root within a factor of $n^{1/k}$ and $1+O(\tfrac{\log n}{k})^2$ when $k\leq \log n$ and $k>\log n$ respectively. We also prove corresponding information-theoretic lower bounds of $n^{\Omega(1/k)}$ and $1+\Omega\left(\frac{\log \frac{2n}{k}}{k}\right)^2$, and show strong lower bounds for noisy version of the problem in which one is given access to approximate coefficients. This problem has applications in the context of the method of interlacing families of polynomials, which was used for proving the existence of Ramanujan graphs of all degrees, the solution of the Kadison-Singer problem, and bounding the integrality gap of the asymmetric traveling salesman problem. All of these involve computing the maximum root of certain real-rooted polynomials for which the top few coefficients are accessible in subexponential time. Our results yield an algorithm with the running time of $2^{\tilde O(\sqrt[3]n)}$ for all of them