On Variance and Average Moduli of Zeros and Critical Points of Polynomials

Abstract

This paper investigates various aspects of the distribution of roots and critical points of a complex polynomial, including their variance and the relationships between their moduli using an inequality due to de Bruijn. Making use of two other inequalities-again due to de Bruijn-we derive two probabilistic results concerning upper bounds for the average moduli of the imaginary parts of zeros and those of critical points, assuming uniform distribution of the zeros over a unit disc and employing the Markov inequality. The paper also provides an explicit formula for the variance of the roots of a complex polynomial for the case when all the zeros are real. In addition, for polynomials with uniform distribution of roots over the unit disc, the expected variance of the zeros is computed. Furthermore, a bound on the variance of the critical points in terms of the variance of the zeros of a general polynomial is derived, whereby it is established that the variance of the critical points of a polynomial cannot exceed the variance of its roots. Finally, we conjecture a relation between the real parts of the zeros and the critical points of a polynomial.