Orthogonal polynomials and higher order singular Sturm-Liouville systems

Abstract

In addition to the classic orthogonal polynomials which satisfy second order differential equations, there are a number of orthogonal polynomials which satisfy differential equations of orders four or six. Like the classic sets, they have distributional weight functions, are the eigenfunctions for certain self-adjoint boundary-value problems, and sometimes are involved with indefinite boundary-value problems. The purpose of this survey is to summarize the work of the last decade and to exhibit the state of the art as it now stands. Of particular interest is the development of the theory of singular Sturm-Liouville systems, which is so necessary in order to describe the boundary-value problems associated with these polynomials.