Interpolatory Pointwise Estimates for Polynomial Approximation

We discuss whether or not it is possible to have interpolatory pointwise estimates in the approximation of a function f∈ C[0,1] , by polynomials. For the sake of completeness, as well as in order to strengthen some existing results, we discuss briefly the situation in unconstrained approximation. Then we deal with positive and monotone constraints where we show exactly when such interpolatory estimates are achievable by proving affirmative results and by providing the necessary counterexamples in all other cases. November 16, 1998. Date revised: July 12, 1999. Date accepted: September 13, 1999.     

Biorthogonal M -Channel Compactly Supported Wavelets

We study a class of M -channel subband coding schemes with perfect reconstruction. Along the lines of [8] and [10], we construct compactly supported biorthogonal wavelet bases of L ² (R) , with dilation factor M , associated to these schemes. In particular, we study the case of splines, and obtain explicitly simple expressions for all the relevant filters. The resulting wavelets have arbitrarily large regularity and we also obtain asymptotic estimates for the regularity exponent. September 17, 1998. Date revised: June 14, 1999. Date accepted: June 25, 1999.     

Interpolation by Polynomials and Radial Basis Functions on Spheres

The paper obtains error estimates for approximation by radial basis functions on the sphere. The approximations are generated by interpolation at scattered points on the sphere. The estimate is given in terms of the appropriate power of the fill distance for the interpolation points, in a similar manner to the estimates for interpolation in Euclidean space. A fundamental ingredient of our work is an estimate for the Lebesgue constant associated with certain interpolation processes by spherical harmonics. These interpolation processes take place in ``spherical caps' whose size is controlled by the fill distance, and the important aim is to keep the relevant Lebesgue constant bounded. This result seems to us to be of independent interest. March 27, 1997. Dates revised: March 19, 1998; August 5, 1999. Date accepted: December 15, 1999.     

Nonnegative Linearization for Polynomials Orthogonal with Respect to Discrete Measures

We give conditions for the coefficients in three term recurrence relations implying nonnegative linearization for polynomials orthogonal with respect to measures supported on convergent sequences of points. The previous methods were unable to cover this case. January 14, 1999. Date revised: January 31, 2000. Date accepted: October 24, 2000.     

More on Comonotone Polynomial Approximation

The main achievement of this paper is that we show, what was to us, a surprising conclusion, namely, twice continuously differentiable functions in (0,1) (with some regular behavior at the endpoints) which change monotonicity at least once in the interval, are approximable better by comonotone polynomials, than are such functions that are merely monotone. We obtain Jackson-type estimates for the comonotone polynomial approximation of such functions that are impossible to achieve for monotone approximation. July 7, 1998. Date revised: May 5, 1999. Date accepted: July 23, 1999.     

Commutation for Irregular Subdivision

We present a generalization of the commutation formula to irregular subdivision schemes and wavelets. We show how, in the noninterpolating case, the divided differences need to be adapted to the subdivision scheme. As an example we include the construction of an entire family of biorthogonal compactly supported irregular knot B-spline wavelets starting from Lagrangian interpolation. September 4, 1998. Date revised: July 27, 1999. Date accepted: November 16, 2000.     

Estimates for conformal capacity

Let a,b,c,d be distinct points on \overline \bf R ⁿ . By p we denote the minimal conformal capacity of all rings (E,F) with a,b ∈ E and c,d∈ F . For n=2 , we use explicit expressions of p in terms of complete elliptic integrals to prove a sharp inequality that connects p and the conformal capacity of Teichmüller's ring. We also show, by a concrete example, how we can use techniques involving polarization and hyperbolic geometry to prove estimates for the conformal capacity of rings. November 16, 1998. Date revised: March 2, 1999. Date accepted: May 7, 1999.     

Optimized Tensor-Product Approximation Spaces

This paper is concerned with the construction of optimized grids and approximation spaces for elliptic differential and integral equations. The main result is the analysis of the approximation of the embedding of the intersection of classes of functions with bounded mixed derivatives in standard Sobolev spaces. Based on the framework of tensor-product biorthogonal wavelet bases and stable subspace splittings, the problem is reduced to diagonal mappings between Hilbert sequence spaces. We construct operator adapted finite element subspaces with a lower dimension than the standard full-grid spaces. These new approximation spaces preserve the approximation order of the standard full-grid spaces, provided that certain additional regularity assumptions are fulfilled. The form of the approximation spaces is governed by the ratios of the smoothness exponents of the considered classes of functions. We show in which cases the so-called curse of dimensionality can be broken. The theory covers elliptic boundary value problems as well as boundary integral equations. September 17, 1998. Date revised: March 5, 1999. Date accepted: September 20, 1999.     

On a Conjecture of E. A. Rakhmanov

It is shown that a conjecture of E. A. Rakhmanov is true concerning the zero distribution of orthogonal polynomials with respect to a measure having a discrete real support. We also discuss the case of extremal polynomials with respect to some discrete L _p -norm, 0 < p ≤∈fty , and give an extension to complex supports. Furthermore, we present properties of weighted Fekete points with respect to discrete complex sets, such as the weighted discrete transfinite diameter and a weighted discrete Bernstein—Walsh-like inequality. August 24, 1998. Date revised: March 26, 1999. Date accepted: April 27, 1999.     

Averages Using Translation Induced by Laguerre and Jacobi Expansions

Approximation by averages of the generalized translation induced by Laguerre and Jacobi expansions will be shown to satisfy a strong converse inequality of type B with the appropriate K -functional. April 9, 1998. Date revised: February 22, 1999. Date accepted: March 5, 1999.     

Note on the Approximation of Powers of the Distance in Two-Dimensional Domains

Although Newman's trick has been mainly applied to the approximation of univariate functions, it is also appropriate for the approximation of multivariate functions that are encountered in connection with Green's functions for elliptic differential equations. The asymptotics of the real-valued function on a ball in 2-space coincides with that for an approximation problem in the complex plane. The note contains an open problem. May 17, 1999. Date revised: October 20, 1999. Date accepted: March 17, 2000.     

Geometry of real polynomial mappings

In this paper we study the set of points at which a real polynomial mapping is not proper. Received: 7 May 1999; in final form: 18 September 2000 / Published online: 25 June 2001     

Approximation by p -Faber polynomials in the weighted Smirnov class Ep( G,ω ) and the Bieberbach polynomials

Let G\subset C be a finite domain with a regular Jordan boundary L . In this work, the approximation properties of a p -Faber polynomial series of functions in the weighted Smirnov class E ^p (G,ω) are studied and the rate of polynomial approximation, for f∈ E ^p ( G,ω) by the weighted integral modulus of continuity, is estimated. Some application of this result to the uniform convergence of the Bieberbach polynomials π _n in a closed domain \overline G with a smooth boundary L is given. February 25, 1999. Date revised: October 20, 1999. Date accepted: May 26, 2000.     

Spectral Measures and Jacobi Matrices Related to Laguerre-Type Systems of Orthogonal Polynomials

This paper considers systems of Laguerre-type orthogonal polynomials for which the corresponding Jacobi matrices represent unbounded self-adjoint operators which are bounded above or below. Under appropriate assumptions on the coefficient sequences in the recursion formula, results are obtained on the uniform boundedness of the polynomials on bounded intervals, the absence of eigenvalues for the corresponding operator, and the absolute continuity of the measure of orthogonality. Date received: September 7, 1995. Date revised: April 17, 1996.     

On Multivariate Adaptive Approximation

Recently, A. Cohen, R. A. DeVore, P. Petrushev, and H. Xu investigated nonlinear approximation in the space BV (R ² ). They modified the classical adaptive algorithm to solve related extremal problems. In this paper, we further study the modified adaptive approximation and obtain results on some extremal problems related to the spaces V _σ,p ^r (R ^d ) of functions of ``Bounded Variation" and Besov spaces B ^α (R ^d ). November 23, 1998. Date revised: June 25, 1999. Date accepted: September 13, 1999.     

Weighted Polynomial Approximation for Convex External Fields

It is proven that if Q is convex and w(x)= exp(-Q(x)) is the corresponding weight, then every continuous function that vanishes outside the support of the extremal measure associated with w can be uniformly approximated by weighted polynomials of the form w ⁿ P _n . This solves a problem of P. Borwein and E. B. Saff. Actually, a similar result is true locally for any parts of the extremal support where Q is convex. February 10, 1998. Date revised: July 23, 1998. Date accepted: August 17, 1998.     

Smoothness of Stationary Subdivision on Irregular Meshes

We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for tangent plane and C ^k -continuity of stationary subdivision schemes near extraordinary vertices. Our criteria generalize most previously known conditions. We introduce a new approach to analysis of subdivision surfaces based on the idea of the universal surface . Any subdivision surface can be locally represented as a projection of the universal surface, which is uniquely defined by the subdivision scheme. This approach provides us with a more intuitive geometric understanding of subdivision near extraordinary vertices. February 16, 1998. Date revised: January 27, 1999. Date accepted: April 2, 1999.     

The Nikol'skii—Timan—Dzjadyk Theorem for Functions on Compact Sets of the Real Line

The Nikol'skii—Timan—Dzjadyk theorem concerning the polynomial approximation of functions on the interval [-1,1] is generalized to the case of the approximation of functions given on a compact set on the real line which can consist of an infinite number of intervals. December 8, 1999. Date revised: August 15, 2000. Date accepted: October 19, 2000.     

Biorthogonal Multiwavelets on the Interval: Cubic Hermite Splines

Starting with Hermite cubic splines as the primal multigenerator, first a dual multigenerator on R is constructed that consists of continuous functions, has small support, and is exact of order 2. We then derive multiresolution sequences on the interval while retaining the polynomial exactness on the primal and dual sides. This guarantees moment conditions of the corresponding wavelets. The concept of stable completions [CDP] is then used to construct the corresponding primal and dual multiwavelets on the interval as follows. An appropriate variation of what is known as a hierarchical basis in finite element methods is shown to be an initial completion. This is then, in a second step, projected into the desired complements spanned by compactly supported biorthogonal multiwavelets. The masks of all multigenerators and multiwavelets are finite so that decomposition and reconstruction algorithms are simple and efficient. Furthermore, in addition to the Jackson estimates which follow from the exactness, one can also show Bernstein inequalities for the primal and dual multiresolutions. Consequently, sequence norms for the coefficients based on such multiwavelet expansions characterize Sobolev norms ||⋅|| _Hs([0,1]) for s∈ (-0.824926,2.5) . In particular, the multiwavelets form Riesz bases for L ₂ ([0,1]) . February 2, 1998. Date revised: February 19, 1999. Date accepted: March 5, 1999.     

Weighted Polynomial Inequalities with Doubling and A ∞ Weights

We consider weighted inequalities such as Bernstein, Nikolskii, Remez, etc., inequalities under minimal assumptions on the weights. It turns out that in most cases this mimimal assumption is the doubling condition. Sometimes, however, as for the Remez and Nikolskii inequalities, one needs the slightly stronger A _∈ fty condition. We shall consider both the trigonometric and the algebraic cases. August 20, 1997. Date revised: April 19, 1998. Date accepted: May 26, 1998.