An encyclopedic presentation of general orthogonal polynomials, placing emphasis on asymptotic behaviour and zero distribution.

The general theory of orthogonal polynomials was developed in the late 19th century from a study of continued fractions by P. L. Chebyshev, even though special cases were introduced earlier by Legendre, Hermite, Jacobi, Laguerre, and Chebyshev himself. It was further developed by A. A. Markov, T. J. Stieltjes, and many other mathematicians. The book by Szego, originally published in 1939, is the first monograph devoted to the theory of orthogonal polynomials and its applications in many areas, including analysis, differential equations, probability and mathematical physics. Even after all the years that have passed since the book first appeared, and with many other books on the subject published since then, this classic monograph by Szego remains an indispensable resource both as a textbook and as a reference book. It can be recommended to anyone who wants to be acquainted with this central topic of mathematical analysis.

"This concise introduction covers general elementary theory related to orthogonal polynomials and assumes only a first undergraduate course in real analysis. Topics include the representation theorem and distribution functions, continued fractions and chain sequences, the recurrence formula and properties of orthogonal polynomials, special functions, and some specific systems of orthogonal polynomials. 1978 edition"--

Publisher description

This book defines sets of orthogonal polynomials and derives a number of properties satisfied by any such set. It continues by describing the classical orthogonal polynomials and the additional properties they have.The first chapter defines the orthogonality condition for two functions. It then gives an iterative process to produce a set of polynomials which are orthogonal to one another and then describes a number of properties satisfied by any set of orthogonal polynomials. The classical orthogonal polynomials arise when the weight function in the orthogonality condition has a particular form. These polynomials have a further set of properties and in particular satisfy a second order differential equation.Each subsequent chapter investigates the properties of a particular polynomial set starting from its differential equation.

The first modern treatment of orthogonal polynomials from the viewpoint of special functions is now available in paperback.