On realizability of sign patterns by real polynomials

The classical Descartes’ rule of signs limits the number of positive roots of a real polynomial in one variable by the number of sign changes in the sequence of its coefficients. One can ask the question which pairs of nonnegative integers (p, n), chosen in accordance with this rule and with some other natural conditions, can be the pairs of numbers of positive and negative roots of a real polynomial with prescribed signs of the coefficients. The paper solves this problem for degree 8 polynomials.