Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
The Szegö polynomials are defined on T, the real numbers modulo 1. In this paper and in its sequel we give a generalization of Szegö polynomials in which T is replaced by an arbitrary locally compact abelian group θ on whose dual there has been distinguished a measurable order relation compatible with the group structure. The present paper is devoted to the case where θ is compact and therefore discrete. The general case will be taken up in the sequel mentioned above. It is desirable to proceed in this way because the case θ compact is much simpler and much more like the classical situation than is the general case, in which various measure-theoretic difficulties obtrude. Moreover, as it happens, it is possible to develop the theory in this way with relatively little repetition.