Divided differences for functions of two variables for irregularly spaced arguments

Divided differences forf (x, y) for completely irregular spacing of points (x _i ,y _i ) are developed here by a natural generalization of Newton's scheme. Existing bivariate schemes either iterate the one-dimensional scheme, thus constraining (x _i ,y _i ) to be at corners of rectangles, or give polynomials Σa _jk x ^j y ^k having more coefficients than interpolation conditions. Here the generalizedn ^th divided difference is defined by (1)\(\left {01... n} \right] = \sum\limits_{i = 0}^n {A_i f\left( {x_i , y_i } \right)} \) where (2)\(\sum\limits_{i = 0}^n {A_i x_i^j , y_i^k = 0} \), and 1 for the last or (n+1)^th equation, for every (j, k) wherej+k=0, 1, 2,... in the usual ascending order. The gen. div. diff. 01...n] is symmetric in (x _i ,y _i ), unchanged under translation, 0 forf (x, y) an, ascending binary polynomial as far asn terms, degree-lowering with respect to (X, Y) whenf(x, y) is any polynomialP(X+x, Y+y), and satisfies the 3-term recurrence relation (3) 01...n]=λ{1...n]?0...n?1]}, where (4) λ= |1...n|·|01...n?1|/|01...n|·|1...n?1|, the |...i...| denoting determinants inx _i ^j y _i ^k . The generalization of Newton's div. diff. formula is (5)

$$\begin{gathered} f\left( {x, y} \right) = f\left( {x_0 , y_0 } \right) - \frac{{\left| {\alpha 0} \right|}}{{\left| 0 \right|}}\left {01} \right] + \frac{{\left| {\alpha 01} \right|}}{{\left| {01} \right|}}\left {012} \right] - \frac{{\left| {\alpha 012} \right|}}{{\left| {012} \right|}}\left {0123} \right] + \cdots + \hfill \\ + \left( { - 1} \right)^n \frac{{\left| {\alpha 01 \ldots n - 1} \right|}}{{\left| {01 \ldots n - 1} \right|}}\left {01 \ldots n} \right] + \left( { - 1} \right)^{n + 1} \frac{{\left| {\alpha 01 \ldots n} \right|}}{{\left| {01 \ldots n} \right|}}\left {01 \ldots n} \right], \hfill \\ \end{gathered} $$