Pairing between zeros and critical points of random polynomials with independent roots

Abstract

Let $p_n$ be a random, degree $n$ polynomial whose roots are chosen independently according to the probability measure $\mu$ on the complex plane. For a deterministic point $\xi$ lying outside the support of $\mu$, we show that almost surely the polynomial $q_n(z):=p_n(z)(z - \xi)$ has a critical point at distance $O(1/n)$ from $\xi$. In other words, conditioning the random polynomials $p_n$ to have a root at $\xi$, almost surely forces a critical point near $\xi$. More generally, we prove an analogous result for the critical points of $q_n(z):=p_n(z)(z - \xi_1)\cdots (z - \xi_k)$, where $\xi_1, \ldots, \xi_k$ are deterministic. In addition, when $k=o(n)$, we show that the empirical distribution constructed from the critical points of $q_n$ converges to $\mu$ in probability as the degree tends to infinity, extending a recent result of Kabluchko.