Lab Lunch: 19 November 2019 - Kyriakos Kalorkoti

Title: Roots of Littlewood polynomials

Abstract: 

If we consider the distribution of roots of polynomials with arbitrary complex number coefficients of a given degree n there is little to say since any set  of n complex numbers can act as the roots.  However the case of polynomials with restricted coefficients is very different.  I will discuss briefly the algorithmic motivation for studying this situation and focus on the roots of Littlewood polynomials (i.e., polynomials whose coefficients are +1 or -1) around the point 1 on the real axis.  This is current research with some aspects still open.