The best possible quadratic refinement of Sendov's conjecture
Abstract
Description
A conjecture of Sendov states that if a polynomial has all its roots in the unit disk and if $β$ is one of those roots, then within one unit of $β$ lies a root of the polynomial's derivative. If we define $r(β)$ to be the greatest possible distance between $β$ and the closest root of the derivative, then Sendov's conjecture claims that $r(β) \le 1$.
In this paper, we assume (without loss of generality) that $0 \le β\le 1$ and make the stronger conjecture that $r(β) \le 1-(3/10)β(1-β)$. We prove this new conjecture for all polynomials of degree 2 or 3, for all real polynomials of degree 4, and for all polynomials of any degree as long as all their roots lie on a line or $β$ is sufficiently close to 1.
5 pages, AMS-LaTeX, no figures. v2: proved Conjecture 1 for polynomials with all roots on a line, noted additional implications of Conjecture 1
5 pages, AMS-LaTeX, no figures. v2: proved Conjecture 1 for polynomials with all roots on a line, noted additional implications of Conjecture 1