Higher order turän inequalities

The celebrated Turân inequalities P 2 n(x)-P n-x(x)P n+1(x) ≥ 0, x ε[-1,1], n ≥ 1, where P n(x) denotes the Legendre polynomial of degree n, are extended to inequalities for sums of products of four classical orthogonal polynomials. The proof is based on an extension of the inequalities γ 2 n - γ n-1γ n+1 ≥ 0, n ≥ 1, which hold for the Maclaurin coefficients of the real entire function ψ in the Laguerre-Pölya class, ψ(x) = ∑ ∞ n=0 γ nx n / n!. ©1998 American Mathematical Society.