A survey of truncation error analysis for Padé and continued fraction approximants

To compute the value of a functionf(z) in the complex domain by means of a converging sequence of rational approximants {f _n(z)} of a continued fraction and/or Padé table, it is essential to have sharp estimates of the truncation error ¦f(z)–f _n(z)¦. This paper is an expository survey of constructive methods for obtaining such truncation error bounds. For most cases dealt with, {f _n(z)} is the sequence of approximants of a continued fractoin, and eachf _n(z) is a (1-point or 2-point) Padé approximant. To provide a common framework that applies to rational approximantf _n(z) that may or may not be successive approximants of a continued fraction, we introduce linear fractional approximant sequences (LFASs). Truncation error bounds are included for a large number of classes of LFASs, most of which contain representations of important functions and constants used in mathematics, statistics, engineering and the physical sciences. An extensive bibliography is given at the end of the paper.Research supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grants INT-9113400 and DMS-9302584.