On Non-linear Characterizations of Classical Orthogonal Polynomials

Classical orthogonal polynomials are known to satisfy seven equivalent properties, namely the Pearson equation for the linear functional, the second-order differential/difference/ q -differential/ divided-difference equation, the orthogonality of the derivatives, the Rodrigues formula, two types of structure relations, and the Riccati equation for the formal Stieltjes function. In this work, following previous work by Kil et al. (J Differ Equ Appl 4:145–162, 1998a; Kyungpook Math J 38:259–281, 1998b), we state and prove a non-linear characterization result for classical orthogonal polynomials on non-uniform lattices. Next, we give explicit relations for some families of these classes.