Multivariate transforms of total positivity

Abstract

Belton-Guillot-Khare-Putinar [J. d'Analyse Math. 2023] classified the post-composition operators that preserve TP/TN kernels of each specified order. We explain how to extend this from preservers to transforms, and from one to several variables. Namely, given arbitrary nonempty totally ordered sets $X,Y$, we characterize the transforms that send each tuple of kernels on $X \times Y$ that are TP/TN of orders $k_1, \dots, k_p$, to a TP/TN kernel of order $l$, for arbitrary positive integers (or infinite) $k_j$ and $l$. An interesting feature is that to preserve TP (or TN) of order $2$, the preservers are products of individual power (or Heaviside) functions in each variable; but for all higher orders, the preservers are powers in a single variable. We also classify the multivariate transforms of symmetric TP/TN kernels; in this case it is the preservers of TP/TN of order 3 that are multivariate products of power functions, and of order 4 that are individual powers. The proofs use generalized Vandermonde kernels, Hankel kernels, (strictly totally positive) Polya frequency functions, and a kernel studied recently but tracing back to works of Schoenberg [Ann. of Math. 1955] and Karlin [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 1964].