%0 Journal Article %T A new approach to the asymptotics for Sobolev orthogonal polynomials %A M. Alfaro %A J. J. Moreno-Balcazar %A A. Pena %A M. L. Rezola %J Mathematics %D 2010 %I arXiv %X In this paper we deal with polynomials orthogonal with respect to an inner product involving derivatives, that is, a Sobolev inner product. Indeed, we consider Sobolev type polynomials which are orthogonal with respect to $$(f,g)=\int fg d\mu +\sum_{i=0}^r M_i f^{(i)}(0) g^{(i)}(0), \quad M_i \ge 0,$$ where $\mu$ is a certain probability measure with unbounded support. For these polynomials, we obtain the relative asymptotics with respect to orthogonal polynomials related to $\mu$, Mehler--Heine type asymptotics and their consequences about the asymptotic behaviour of the zeros. To establish these results we use a new approach different from the methods used in the literature up to now. The development of this technique is highly motivated by the fact that the methods used when $\mu$ is bounded do not work. %U http://arxiv.org/abs/1003.3336v1