Polynomials with symmetric zeros

Polynomials whose zeros are symmetric either to the real line or to the unit circle are very important in mathematics and physics. We can classify them into three main classes: the self-conjugate polynomials, whose zeros are symmetric to the real line; the self-inversive polynomials, whose zeros are symmetric to the unit circle; and the self-reciprocal polynomials, whose zeros are symmetric by an inversion with respect to the unit circle followed by a reflection in the real line. Real self-reciprocal polynomials are simultaneously self-conjugate and self-inversive so that their zeros are symmetric to both the real line and the unit circle. In this survey, we present a short review of these polynomials, focusing on the distribution of their zeros.Comment: Keywords: Self-inversive polynomials, self-reciprocal polynomials, Pisot and Salem polynomials, M\"obius transformations, knot theory, Bethe equation

Salem-Boyd sequences and Hopf plumbing

Given a fibered link, consider the characteristic polynomial of the monodromy restricted to first homology. This generalizes the notion of the Alexander polynomial of a knot. We define a construction, called iterated plumbing, to create a sequence of fibered links from a given one. The resulting sequence of characteristic polynomials has the same form as those arising in work of Salem and Boyd in their study of distributions of Salem and P-V numbers. From this we deduce information about the asymptotic behavior of the large roots of the generalized Alexander polynomials, and define a new poset structure for Salem fibered links.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Osaka J. Mat

String Reconstruction from Substring Compositions

Motivated by mass-spectrometry protein sequencing, we consider a simply-stated problem of reconstructing a string from the multiset of its substring compositions. We show that all strings of length 7, one less than a prime, or one less than twice a prime, can be reconstructed uniquely up to reversal. For all other lengths we show that reconstruction is not always possible and provide sometimes-tight bounds on the largest number of strings with given substring compositions. The lower bounds are derived by combinatorial arguments and the upper bounds by algebraic considerations that precisely characterize the set of strings with the same substring compositions in terms of the factorization of bivariate polynomials. The problem can be viewed as a combinatorial simplification of the turnpike problem, and its solution may shed light on this long-standing problem as well. Using well known results on transience of multi-dimensional random walks, we also provide a reconstruction algorithm that reconstructs random strings over alphabets of size $\ge4$ in optimal near-quadratic time

Fixed Point Polynomials of Permutation Groups

In this paper we study, given a group $G$ of permutations of a finite set, the so-called fixed point polynomial $\sum_{i=0}^{n}f_{i}x^{i}$, where $f_{i}$ is the number of permutations in $G$ which have exactly $i$ fixed points. In particular, we investigate how root location relates to properties of the permutation group. We show that for a large family of such groups most roots are close to the unit circle and roughly uniformly distributed round it. We prove that many families of such polynomials have few real roots. We show that many of these polynomials are irreducible when the group acts transitively. We close by indicating some future directions of this research. A corrigendum was appended to this paper on 10th October 2014. </jats:p

Structure of Certain Chebyshev-type Polynomials in Onsager's Algebra Representation

In this report, we present a systematic account of mathematical structures of certain special polynomials arisen from the energy study of the superintegrable $N$-state chiral Potts model with a finite number of sizes. The polynomials of low-lying sectors are represented in two different forms, one of which is directly related to the energy description of superintegrable chiral Potts \ZZ_N-spin chain via the representation theory of Onsager's algebra. Both two types of polynomials satisfy some $(N+1)$-term recurrence relations, and $N$th order differential equations; polynomials of one kind reveal certain Chebyshev-like properties. Here we provide a rigorous mathematical argument for cases $N=2, 3$, and further raise some mathematical conjectures on those special polynomials for a general $N$.Comment: 18 pages, Latex ; Typos corrected, Small changes for clearer presentatio