Pairing of Zeros and Critical Points for Random Polynomials

Abstract: Let p_N be a random degree N polynomial in one complex variable whose zeros are chosen independently from a fixed probability measure mu on the Riemann sphere S^2. This article proves that if we condition p_N to have a zero at some fixed point xi in , then, with high probability, there will be a critical point w_xi a distance 1/N away from xi. This 1/N distance is much smaller than the one over root N typical spacing between nearest neighbors for N i.i.d. points on S^2. Moreover, with the same high probability, the argument of w_xi relative to xi is a deterministic function of mu plus fluctuations on the order of 1/N.