Positivity properties of Jacobi-Stirling numbers and generalized Ramanujan polynomials

Abstract

Generalizing recent results of Egge and Mongelli, we show that each diagonal sequence of the Jacobi-Stirling numbers $\js(n,k;z)$ and $\JS(n,k;z)$ is a P\'olya frequency sequence if and only if $z\in [-1, 1]$ and study the $z$-total positivity properties of these numbers. Moreover, the polynomial sequences $$\biggl\{\sum_{k=0}^n\JS(n,k;z)y^k\biggr\}_{n\geq 0}\quad \text{and} \quad \biggl\{\sum_{k=0}^n\js(n,k;z)y^k\biggr\}_{n\geq 0}$$ are proved to be strongly $\{z,y\}$-log-convex. In the same vein, we extend a recent result of Chen et al. about the Ramanujan polynomials to Chapoton's generalized Ramanujan polynomials. Finally, bridging the Ramanujan polynomials and a sequence arising from the Lambert $W$ function, we obtain a neat proof of the unimodality of the latter sequence, which was proved previously by Kalugin and Jeffrey.