Bernstein type inequalities and potential theory

Bernstein's inequality is well known in approximation theory. Although it was established more than 100 years ago, sharp forms for more general sets were found only 20 years ago. In this talk, we review asymptotically sharp Bernstein type inequalities and how the search for asymptotically sharp forms leads naturally to application of potential theory. In the end, some recent results will be presented.
The results are based on joint works with Vilmos Totik and Sergei Kalmykov.