On classical orthogonal polynomials related to Hahn's operator

Abstract

Let ${\bf u}$ be a nonzero linear functional acting on the space of polynomials. Let $\mathbf{D}_{q,\omega}$ be a Hahn operator acting on the dual space of polynomials. Suppose that there exist polynomials $\phi$ and $\psi$, with $\mathrm{deg}\,\phi\leq2$ and $\mathrm{deg}\,\psi\leq1$, so that the functional equation $$ \mathbf{D}_{q,\omega}(\phi {\bf u})=\psi{\bf u} $$ holds, where the involved operations are defined in a distributional sense. In this note we state necessary and sufficient conditions, involving only the coefficients of $\phi$ and $\psi$, such that ${\bf u}$ is regular, that is, there exists a sequence of orthogonal polynomials with respect to ${\bf u}$. A key step in the proof relies upon the fact that a distributional Rodrigues-type formula holds without assuming that ${\bf u}$ is regular.