Szego polynomials: a view from the Riemann-Hilbert window

This is an expanded version of the talk given at the conference ``Constructive Functions Tech-04''. We survey some recent results on canonical representation and asymptotic behavior of polynomials orthogonal on the unit circle with respect to an analytic weight. These results are obtained using the steepest descent method based on the Riemann-Hilbert characterization of these polynomials.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures; To appear in Elect. Trans. Num. Anal. Apparently, due to some missing .sty file, all integrals in version 2 were gone. Version 3 is a mere correction of this proble

Critical measures, quadratic differentials, and weak limits of zeros of Stieltjes polynomials

We investigate the asymptotic zero distribution of Heine-Stieltjes polynomials - polynomial solutions of a second order differential equations with complex polynomial coefficients. In the case when all zeros of the leading coefficients are all real, zeros of the Heine-Stieltjes polynomials were interpreted by Stieltjes as discrete distributions minimizing an energy functional. In a general complex situation one deals instead with a critical point of the energy. We introduce the notion of discrete and continuous critical measures (saddle points of the weighted logarithmic energy on the plane), and prove that a weak-* limit of a sequence of discrete critical measures is a continuous critical measure. Thus, the limit zero distributions of the Heine-Stieltjes polynomials are given by continuous critical measures. We give a detailed description of such measures, showing their connections with quadratic differentials. In doing that, we obtain some results on the global structure of rational quadratic differentials on the Riemann sphere that have an independent interest.Comment: 70 pages, 14 figures. Minor corrections, to appear in Comm. Math. Physic