Real zeroes of random polynomials, II: Descartes' rule of signs and anti-concentration on the symmetric group

Abstract

In this sequel to Part-I, we present a different approach to bounding the expected number of real zeroes of random polynomials with real independent identically distributed coefficients or more generally, exchangeable coefficients. We show that the mean number of real zeroes does not grow faster than the logarithm of the degree. The main ingredients of our approach are Descartes' rule of signs and a new anti-concentration inequality for the symmetric group. This paper can be read independently of part-I in this series.