ON THE ZEROS OF SOME ELEMENTARY TRANSCENDENTAL FUNCTIONS
L. S. PONTRYAGIN
s.r,lcio de Sun•i1st10 de [)oQlmemOI
N,lloteca Sotero Prieto
lnltllutO de Matefflállc:CIS
UNAM
In the theory of the stability of solutions of ordioary differential equations,
the problem of the location of the roots of the secular equatioo P(z) ""O plays an
important role. If to the positioo of equilibrium p of a system of equations there
correspnnds a secular polynomial, then for the stability of th..is position of equilib-
rium, ir is sufficient that ali the roots of the polynomfal P(z) have oegative real
parts, and necessary that the polynomial P(z) have no root witb positive real part.
Problems of this cype concerning the location of the roots of a polynomial conse-
quently play a fundamental role, with the known soluti9n of Hurwirz. In applica-
tions involvíng equations with parcial derivatives a similar problem sometí.mes
arises, no longer for polynomials, but for transcendental functions, Our work: will
be devoted to a solution of this problem for transcendental functions of the form
H(z) ""'h(z, é), where h(z, t) is a polynomial. More predsely, tbis problem is
Jinked to the solution of some problems for elemencary ttansceodeotal functions,
bue no longer relative to the behavior in the re_al domain; then tbis problem can be
given a fully effective solution by means of the cechnique of Stucm.
Let us denote by r tbe degree of the polynomial h(z, t) with respecc to z, and
by s the degree of the polynomial with respecc to t, The cenn of che form azrts
will be called principal. If che polynomial h(z, t) does noc possess a principal
term, che function H(z) definitely has an iofinite number of zeros with arbitrarily
large posicive real pare. lf che polynomial has a principal cerm, then we consider
the behavior of thc funccion H(z) on the imaginary ax.is; i,e., for z :iy where y is
a real variable, in order to solve the problem posed above. The function l/(iy) is
separaced ioco its real and imagioary parts, H(iy) ""'F(y) + iG(y), where F(y) =
{(y, cosy, sin y), G(y) = g(y, cos y, sin y), and F(y, u, v), G(y, u, v) are polyoomials.
1t is shown that in order that che real pares of ali che roots to be negative, it is
nccessary and suffident tbac che roocs of che fuoccions F(y) and G(y) aU be real
and alternating and also cha.e che inequalicy G'(y)F(y) - G(y)F'(y)-> O hold fot
one value of y. Tbe problem of when al! the roots of a function of the form F(z)
are real is solved by che following criterion: in order that ali the roots of the func•
tion F(z) are.real, .it is necessary and sufficient thac over the interval -2krr5.y5.
2hr tbe funcuon F(y) have, beginning with sufficiently Iarge k, exactly 4sk + r
rooc~. This last criterion is quite ana.logou.s to a corresponding criteriori forpoly•
nom1als; namely, the presence of a sufficiently large number of reaJ roots guaran•
tees che absence of complex roots.
Our work is presented as a development of work of N. G. lebatarev. In bis 1¡
lcctures ac tbe Moscow Mathematical Confcrcnce in tbe wincer of 1941-42, N. G.
lebatarev summarized che solution of the problcm whicb is solved in this paper
for the case in whicb the polynomial h(z, t) is linear wich respect to t However
for th.is case, N. G. tebatarev gavc only sufficient conditions that che functioo•
/f(z) have only zeros with ncgative real parts, thc neccssity of che condicion was
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