English

Double roots of random Littlewood polynomials

Probability 2017-03-14 v2 Combinatorics Number Theory

Abstract

We consider random polynomials whose coefficients are independent and uniform on {-1,1}. We prove that the probability that such a polynomial of degree n has a double root is o(n^{-2}) when n+1 is not divisible by 4 and asymptotic to 83πn2\frac{8\sqrt{3}}{\pi n^2} otherwise. This result is a corollary of a more general theorem that we prove concerning random polynomials with independent, identically distributed coefficients having a distribution which is supported on { -1, 0, 1} and whose largest atom is strictly less than 1/\sqrt{3}. In this general case, we prove that the probability of having a double root equals the probability that either -1, 0 or 1 are double roots up to an o(n^{-2}) factor and we find the asymptotics of the latter probability.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1409.2034,
  title  = {Double roots of random Littlewood polynomials},
  author = {Ron Peled and Arnab Sen and Ofer Zeitouni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.2034},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

Incorporates referee's comments. To appear in Israel J. Math