Multiple Meixner-Pollaczek polynomials and the six-vertex model

We study multiple orthogonal polynomials of Meixner-Pollaczek type with respect to a symmetric system of two orthogonality measures. Our main result is that the limiting distribution of the zeros of these polynomials is one component of the solution to a constrained vector equilibrium problem. We also provide a Rodrigues formula and closed expressions for the recurrence coefficients. The proof of the main result follows from a connection with the eigenvalues of block Toeplitz matrices, for which we provide some general results of independent interest. The motivation for this paper is the study of a model in statistical mechanics, the so-called six-vertex model with domain wall boundary conditions, in a particular regime known as the free fermion line. We show how the multiple Meixner-Pollaczek polynomials arise in an inhomogeneous version of this model.Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures. References adde

What is … \ldots\ a multiple orthogonal polynomial?

This is an extended version of our note in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society 63 (2016), no. 9, in which we explain what multiple orthogonal polynomials are and where they appear in various applications.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Average Characteristic Polynomials of Determinantal Point Processes

We investigate the average characteristic polynomial $\mathbb E\big[\prod_{i=1}^N(z-x_i)\big]$ where the $x_i$'s are real random variables which form a determinantal point process associated to a bounded projection operator. For a subclass of point processes, which contains Orthogonal Polynomial Ensembles and Multiple Orthogonal Polynomial Ensembles, we provide a sufficient condition for its limiting zero distribution to match with the limiting distribution of the random variables, almost surely, as $N$ goes to infinity. Moreover, such a condition turns out to be sufficient to strengthen the mean convergence to the almost sure one for the moments of the empirical measure associated to the determinantal point process, a fact of independent interest. As an application, we obtain from a theorem of Kuijlaars and Van Assche a unified way to describe the almost sure convergence for classical Orthogonal Polynomial Ensembles. As another application, we obtain from Voiculescu's theorems the limiting zero distribution for multiple Hermite and multiple Laguerre polynomials, expressed in terms of free convolutions of classical distributions with atomic measures.Comment: 26 page

Return probability after a quench from a domain wall initial state in the spin-1/2 XXZ chain

We study the return probability and its imaginary ($\tau$) time continuation after a quench from a domain wall initial state in the XXZ spin chain, focusing mainly on the region with anisotropy $|\Delta|< 1$. We establish exact Fredholm determinant formulas for those, by exploiting a connection to the six vertex model with domain wall boundary conditions. In imaginary time, we find the expected scaling for a partition function of a statistical mechanical model of area proportional to $\tau^2$, which reflects the fact that the model exhibits the limit shape phenomenon. In real time, we observe that in the region $|\Delta|<1$ the decay for large times $t$ is nowhere continuous as a function of anisotropy: it is either gaussian at root of unity or exponential otherwise. As an aside, we also determine that the front moves as $x_{\rm f}(t)=t\sqrt{1-\Delta^2}$, by analytic continuation of known arctic curves in the six vertex model. Exactly at $|\Delta|=1$, we find the return probability decays as $e^{-\zeta(3/2) \sqrt{t/\pi}}t^{1/2}O(1)$. It is argued that this result provides an upper bound on spin transport. In particular, it suggests that transport should be diffusive at the isotropic point for this quench.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures. v2: typos fixed, references added. v3: minor change

Exact time evolution formulae in the XXZ spin chain with domain wall initial state

We study the time evolution of the spin-1/2 XXZ chain initialized in a domain wall state, where all spins to the left of the origin are up, all spins to its right are down. The focus is on exact formulae, which hold for arbitrary finite (real or imaginary) time. In particular, we compute the amplitudes corresponding to the process where all but $k$ spins come back to their initial orientation, as a $k-$fold contour integral. These results are obtained using a correspondence with the six vertex model, and taking a somewhat complicated Hamiltonian/Trotter-type limit. Several simple applications are studied and also discussed in a broader context.Comment: 44 pages, 5 figure

Cyclic tridiagonal pairs, higher order Onsager algebras and orthogonal polynomials

The concept of cyclic tridiagonal pairs is introduced, and explicit examples are given. For a fairly general class of cyclic tridiagonal pairs with cyclicity N, we associate a pair of `divided polynomials'. The properties of this pair generalize the ones of tridiagonal pairs of Racah type. The algebra generated by the pair of divided polynomials is identified as a higher-order generalization of the Onsager algebra. It can be viewed as a subalgebra of the q-Onsager algebra for a proper specialization at q the primitive 2Nth root of unity. Orthogonal polynomials beyond the Leonard duality are revisited in light of this framework. In particular, certain second-order Dunkl shift operators provide a realization of the divided polynomials at N=2 or q=i.Comment: 32 pages; v2: Appendices improved and extended, e.g. a proof of irreducibility is added; v3: version for Linear Algebra and its Applications, one assumption added in Appendix about eq. (A.2

A family of Nikishin systems with periodic recurrence coefficients

Suppose we have a Nikishin system of $p$ measures with the $k$th generating measure of the Nikishin system supported on an interval \Delta_k\subset\er with $\Delta_k\cap\Delta_{k+1}=\emptyset$ for all $k$. It is well known that the corresponding staircase sequence of multiple orthogonal polynomials satisfies a $(p+2)$-term recurrence relation whose recurrence coefficients, under appropriate assumptions on the generating measures, have periodic limits of period $p$. (The limit values depend only on the positions of the intervals $\Delta_k$.) Taking these periodic limit values as the coefficients of a new $(p+2)$-term recurrence relation, we construct a canonical sequence of monic polynomials $\{P_{n}\}_{n=0}^{\infty}$, the so-called \emph{Chebyshev-Nikishin polynomials}. We show that the polynomials $P_{n}$ themselves form a sequence of multiple orthogonal polynomials with respect to some Nikishin system of measures, with the $k$th generating measure being absolutely continuous on $\Delta_{k}$. In this way we generalize a result of the third author and Rocha \cite{LopRoc} for the case $p=2$. The proof uses the connection with block Toeplitz matrices, and with a certain Riemann surface of genus zero. We also obtain strong asymptotics and an exact Widom-type formula for the second kind functions of the Nikishin system for $\{P_{n}\}_{n=0}^{\infty}$.Comment: 30 pages, minor change