Approximation by translates of refinable functions

Summary. The functions are refinable if they are combinations of the rescaled and translated functions . This is very common in scientific computing on a regular mesh. The space of approximating functions with meshwidth is a subspace of with meshwidth . These refinable spaces have refinable basis functions. The accuracy of the computations depends on , the order of approximation, which is determined by the degree of polynomials that lie in . Most refinable functions (such as scaling functions in the theory of wavelets) have no simple formulas. The functions are known only through the coefficients in the refinement equation – scalars in the traditional case, matrices for multiwavelets. The scalar "sum rules" that determine are well known. We find the conditions on the matrices that yield approximation of order from . These are equivalent to the Strang–Fix conditions on the Fourier transforms , but for refinable functions they can be explicitly verified from the . Received August 31, 1994 / Revised version received May 2, 1995