Orthogonal polynomial interpretation of Δ-Toda equations

In this paper a discretization of Toda equations is analyzed. The correspondence between these Δ-Toda equations for the coefficients of the Jacobi operator and its resolvent function is established. It is shown that the spectral measure of these operators evolve in t like ${(1+x)}^{1-t}\;{\rm{d}}\mu (x)$ where ${\rm{d}}\mu$ is a given positive Borel measure. The Lax pair for the Δ-Toda equations is derived and characterized in terms of linear functionals, where orthogonal polynomials which satisfy an Appell condition with respect to the forward difference operator Δ appear in a natural way. In order to illustrate the results of the paper we work out two examples of Δ-Toda equations related with Jacobi and Laguerre orthogonal polynomials