On the zeros of complex Van Vleck polynomials

Polynomial solutions to the generalized Lamé equation, the Stieltjes polynomials, and the associated Van Vleck polynomials, have been studied extensively in the case of real number parameters. In the complex case, relatively little is known. Numerical investigations of the location of the zeros of the Stieltjes and Van Vleck polynomials in special cases reveal intriguing patterns in the complex case, suggestive of a deeper structure. In this article we report on these investigations, with the main result being a proof of a theorem confirming that the zeros of the Van Vleck polynomials lie on special line segments in the case of the complex generalized Lamé equation having three free parameters. Furthermore, as a result of this proposition, we are able to obtain in this case a strengthening of a classical result of Heine on the number of possible Van Vleck polynomials associated with a given Stieltjes polynomial.