Strong Asymptotics for Extremal Polynomials Associated with Weights on R

0. The results are consequences of a strengthened form of the following assertion: Given 0 <p<, f Lp ( ) and a certain sequence of positive numbers associated with Q(x), there exist polynomials Pn of degree at most n, n = 1,2,3..., such that if and only if f(x) = 0 for a.e. > 1. Auxiliary results include inequalities for weighted polynomials, and zeros of extremal polynomials. The monograph is fairly self-contained, with proofs involving elementary complex analysis, and the theory of orthogonal and extremal polynomials. It should be of interest to research workers in approximation theory and orthogonal polynomials.