A lower bound for the minimum deviation of the Chebyshev polynomial on a compact real set

Abstract

In this paper, we give a sharp lower bound for the minimum deviation of the Chebyshev polynomial on a compact subset of the real line in terms of the corresponding logarithmic capacity. Especially if the set is the union of several real intervals, together with a lower bound for the logarithmic capacity derived recently by A.Yu.\,Solynin, one has a lower bound for the minimum deviation in terms of elementary functions of the endpoints of the intervals. In addition, analogous results for compact subsets of the unit circle are given.