Applications of the monotonicity of extremal zeros of orthogonal polynomials in interlacing and optimization problems

We investigate monotonicity properties of extremal zeros of orthogonal polynomials depending on a parameter. Using a functional analysis method we prove the monotonicity of extreme zeros of associated Jacobi, associated Gegenbauer and q-Meixner-Pollaczek polynomials. We show how these results can be applied to prove interlacing of zeros of orthogonal polynomials with shifted parameters and to determine optimally localized polynomials on the unit ball. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.