Quasi-exactly solvable potentials on the line and orthogonal polynomials

Abstract

In this paper we show that a quasi-exactly solvable (normalizable or periodic) one-dimensional Hamiltonian satisfying very mild conditions defines a family of weakly orthogonal polynomials which obey a three-term recursion relation. in particular, we prove that (normalizable) exactly solvable one-dimensional systems are characterized by the fact that their associated polynomials satisfy a two-term recursion relation. We study the properties of the family of weakly orthogonal polynomials defined by an arbitrary one-dimensional quasi-exactly solvable Hamiltonian, showing in particular that its associated Stieltjes measure is supported on a finite set. From this we deduce that the corresponding moment problem is determined, and that the kth moment grows Like the kth power of a constant as k tends to infinity. We also show that the moments satisfy a constant coefficient linear difference equation, and that this property actually characterizes weakly orthogonal polynomial systems.