Real-rootedness for the odd-entry 2-bridge-link family

Prove that the Q-polynomial of the 2-bridge link represented by a continued fraction with 2n+1 entries, all equal to 1, is r-stable for the relevant positive integers n, meaning that all of its nonzero zeros are real.

Background

The paper proves r-stability for the family of 2-bridge links K_n=[11⋯11] whose continued fraction has 2n entries, all equal to 1. The author then notes that the analogous family with 2n+1 entries equal to 1 has been checked for a few small values of n.

A complete proof for this odd-entry family is explicitly unavailable in the paper, leaving the extension of the established even-entry result as an unresolved problem.

References

We have verified the analogue of Proposition~\ref{realpro}, with $2n+1$ entries equal to $1$, for a few small values of $n$, but we do not yet have a complete proof.

On the Mahler measure and root distribution of the $Q$-polynomial of links  (2609.05200 - Shoji, 4 Sep 2026) in Section 4, subsection “Examples of r-stable Q-polynomials,” remark immediately following Proposition 4.1