On the distribution of simple zeros of polynomials

Abstract

Erdős and Turán discussed in ( Ann. of Math. 41 (1940), 162–173; 51 (1950), 105–119) the distribution of the zeros of monic polynomials if their Chebyshev norm on [−1, 1] or on the unit disk is known. We sharpen this result to the case that all zeros of the polynomials are simple. As applications, estimates for the distribution of the zeros of orthogonal polynomials and the distribution of the alternation points in Chebyshev polynomial approximation are given. This last result sharpens a well-known error bound of Kadec ( Amer. Math. Soc. Transl. 26 (1963), 231–234).