Commuting difference operators, spinor bundles and the asymptotics of orthogonal polynomials with respect to varying complex weights

The paper has three parts. In the first part we apply the theory of commuting pairs of (pseudo) difference operators to the (formal) asymptotics of orthogonal polynomials: using purely geometrical arguments we show heuristically that the asymptotics, for large degrees, of orthogonal polynomial with respect to varying weights is intimately related to certain spinor bundles on a hyperelliptic algebraic curve reproducing formulae appearing in the works of Deift et al. on the subject. In the second part we show that given an arbitrary nodal hyperelliptic curve satisfying certain conditions of admissibility we can reconstruct a sequence of polynomials orthogonal with respect to semiclassical complex varying weights supported on several curves in the complex plane. The strong asymptotics of these polynomials will be shown to be given by the spinors introduced in the first part using a Riemann-Hilbert analysis. In the third part we use Strebel theory of quadratic differentials and the procedure of welding to reconstruct arbitrary admissible hyperelliptic curves. As a result we can obtain orthogonal polynomials whose zeroes may become dense on a collection of Jordan arcs forming an arbitrary forest of trivalent loop-free trees. (c) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.