Positivity of Tur\'an determinants for orthogonal polynomials

Abstract

The orthogonal polynomials $p_n$ satisfy Tur\'an's inequality if $p_n^2(x)-p_{n-1}(x)p_{n+1}(x)\ge 0$ for $n\ge 1$ and for all $x$ in the interval of orthogonality. We give general criteria for orthogonal polynomials to satisfy Tur\'an's inequality. This yields the known results for classical orthogonal polynomials as well as new results, for example, for the $q$--ultraspherical polynomials.