Bénéteau, CatherineKhavinson, DmitrySola, Alan A.Liaw, ConstanzeSeco Forsnacke, Daniel2021-05-142021-05-142016-12Bénéteau, C., Khavinson, D., Sola, A. A., Liaw, C. & Seco, D. (2016). Orthogonal polynomials, reproducing kernels, and zeros of optimal approximants. Journal of the London Mathematical Society, 94(3), pp. 726–746.0024-6107https://hdl.handle.net/10016/32632We study connections between orthogonal polynomials, reproducing kernel functions, and polynomials P minimizing Dirichlet‐type norms ∥pf−1∥α for a given function f . For α ∈ [0,1] (which includes the Hardy and Dirichlet spaces of the disk) and general f , we show that such extremal polynomials are non‐vanishing in the closed unit disk. For negative α , the weighted Bergman space case, the extremal polynomials are non‐vanishing on a disk of strictly smaller radius, and zeros can move inside the unit disk. We also explain how dist Dα (1, f · Pn) , where Pn is the space of polynomials of degree at most n , can be expressed in terms of quantities associated with orthogonal polynomials and kernels, and we discuss methods for computing the quantities in question.21eng© 2016 London Mathematical Societyresearch articleMatemáticashttps://doi.org/10.1112/jlms/jdw057open access7263746Journal of the London Mathematical Society94AR/0000026420