L p -Error Bounds for Hermite Interpolation and the Associated Wirtinger Inequalities

The B-spline representation for divided differences is used, for the first time, to provide L _p -bounds for the error in Hermite interpolation, and its derivatives, thereby simplifying and improving the results to be found in the extensive literature on the problem. These bounds are equivalent to certain Wirtinger inequalities. The major result is the inequality where H_Θ f is the Hermite interpolant to f at the multiset of n points Θ, and is the diameter of . This inequality significantly improves upon Beesack's inequality, on which almost all the bounds given over the last 30 years have been based. Date received: June 24, 1994 Date revised: February 4, 1996.     

On Stable Local Bases for Bivariate Polynomial Spline Spaces

Stable locally supported bases are constructed for the spaces \cal S _d ^r (\triangle) of polynomial splines of degree d≥ 3r+2 and smoothness r defined on triangulations \triangle , as well as for various superspline subspaces. In addition, we show that for r≥ 1 , in general, it is impossible to construct bases which are simultaneously stable and locally linearly independent. February 2, 2000. Date revised: November 27, 2000. Date accepted: March 7, 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.     

On the Best Approximation by Ridge Functions in the Uniform Norm

We consider the best approximation of some function classes by the manifold M _n consisting of sums of n arbitrary ridge functions. It is proved that the deviation of the Sobolev class W _p ^r,d from the manifold M _n in the space L _q for any 2≤ q≤ p≤∈fty behaves asymptotically as n ^-r/(d-1) . In particular, we obtain this asymptotic estimate for the uniform norm p=q=∈fty . January 10, 2000. Date revised: March 1, 2001. Date accepted: March 12, 2001.     

Approximation Orders of FSI Spaces in L 2 (R d )

A second look at the authors' [BDR1], [BDR2] characterization of the approximation order of a Finitely generated Shift-Invariant subspace S(Φ) of L ₂ (R ^d ) results in a more explicit formulation entirely in terms of the (Fourier transform of the) generators of the subspace. Further, when the generators satisfy a certain technical condition, then, under the mild assumption that the set of 1-periodizations of the generators is linearly independent, such a space is shown to provide approximation order k if and only if contains a ψ (necessarily unique) satisfying . The technical condition is satisfied, e.g., when the generators are at infinity for some ρ>k+d . In the case of compactly supported generators, this recovers an earlier result of Jia [J1], [J2]. March 19. 1996. Date revised: September 6, 1996.     

On the Asymptotically Optimal Rate of Approximation of Multiplier Operators from L p into L q

The asymptotic behavior of the n -widths of multiplier operators from L _p [0,1] into L _q [0,1] is studied. General upper and lower bounds for the n -widths in terms of the multipliers are established. Moreover, it is shown that these upper and lower bounds coincide for some important concrete examples. August 3, 1994. Date revised: November 15, 1996.     

An Adaptive Compression Algorithm in Besov Spaces

Given a function f on [0,1] and a wavelet-type expansion of f , we introduce a new algorithm providing an approximation $\tilde f of f with a prescribed number D of nonzero coefficients in its expansion. This algorithm depends only on the number of coefficients to be kept and not on any smoothness assumption on f . Nevertheless it provides the optimal rate D ^-α of approximation with respect to the L _q -norm when f belongs to some Besov space B ^α _p,∈fty whenever α>(1/p-1/q) ⁺ . These results extend to more general expansions including splines and piecewise polynomials and to multivariate functions. Moreover, this construction allows us to compute easily the metric entropy of Besov balls. June 21, 1996. Dates revised: April 9, 1998; October 14, 1998. Date accepted: October 20, 1998.     

Weighted Maximum Over Minimum Modulus of Polynomials, Applied to Ray Sequences of Padé Approximants

Let a≥ 0 , ɛ >0 . We use potential theory to obtain a sharp lower bound for the linear Lebesgue measure of the set Here P is an arbitrary polynomial of degree ≤ n . We then apply this to diagonal and ray Padé sequences for functions analytic (or meromorphic) in the unit ball. For example, we show that the diagonal \left{ [n/n]\right} _n=1 ^∞ sequence provides good approximation on almost one-eighth of the circles centre 0 , and the \left{ [2n/n]\right} _n=1 ^∞ sequence on almost one-quarter of such circles. July 18, 2000. Date revised: . Date accepted: April 19, 2001.     

Nonnegative Trigonometric Polynomials

An extremal problem for the coefficients of sine polynomials, which are nonnegative in [0,π] , posed and discussed by Rogosinski and Szegő is under consideration. An analog of the Fejér—Riesz representation of nonnegative general trigonometric and cosine polynomials is proved for nonnegative sine polynomials. Various extremal sine polynomials for the problem of Rogosinski and Szegő are obtained explicitly. Associated cosine polynomials k _n (θ) are constructed in such a way that { k _n (θ) } are summability kernels. Thus, the L _p , pointwise and almost everywhere convergence of the corresponding convolutions, is established. April 26, 2000. Date revised: December 28, 2000. Date accepted: February 8, 2001.     

Lagrange Interpolation in Weighted Besov Spaces

The behavior of the Lagrange polynomial L _m (w,f) , based on the zeros of the orthogonal polynomials, is studied in some weighted Besov spaces B ^p _r,q (u) . It is proved that L _m (w) is a uniformly bounded map under suitable conditions on the weight functions and the parameters p , r , and q . December 11, 1996. Date revised: October 29, 1997. Date accepted: June 15, 1998.     

On the Convergence in Capacity of Rational Approximants

Let {r _n } be a sequence of rational functions deg( r _n ≤ n) that converge rapidly in measure to an analytic function f on an open set in C ^N . We show that {r _n } converges rapidly in capacity to f on its natural domain of definition W _f (which, by a result of Goncar, is an open subset of C ^N ). In particular, for f meromorphic on C ^N and analytic near zero the sequence of Padé approximants {π _n (z, f, λ)} (as defined by Goncar) converges rapidly in capacity to f on C ^N . January 14, 1999. Date revised: October 7, 1999. Date accepted: November 1, 1999.     

On Existence and Weak Stability of Matrix Refinable Functions

We consider the existence of distributional (or L ₂ ) solutions of the matrix refinement equation where P is an r×r matrix with trigonometric polynomial entries. One of the main results of this paper is that the above matrix refinement equation has a compactly supported distributional solution if and only if the matrix P (0) has an eigenvalue of the form 2 ⁿ , . A characterization of the existence of L ₂ -solutions of the above matrix refinement equation in terms of the mask is also given. A concept of L ₂ -weak stability of a (finite) sequence of function vectors is introduced. In the case when the function vectors are solutions of a matrix refinement equation, we characterize this weak stability in terms of the mask. August 1, 1996. Date revised: July 28, 1997. Date accepted: August 12, 1997.     

On the Degree of Approximation by Manifolds of Finite Pseudo-Dimension

The pseudo-dimension of a real-valued function class is an extension of the VC dimension for set-indicator function classes. A class of finite pseudo-dimension possesses a useful statistical smoothness property. In [10] we introduced a nonlinear approximation width = which measures the worst-case approximation error over all functions by the best manifold of pseudo-dimension n . In this paper we obtain tight upper and lower bounds on ρ _n (W ^r,d _p , L _q ) , both being a constant factor of n ^-r/d , for a Sobolev class W ^r,d _p , . As this is also the estimate of the classical Alexandrov nonlinear n -width, our result proves that approximation of W ^r,d _p by the family of manifolds of pseudo-dimension n is as powerful as approximation by the family of all nonlinear manifolds with continuous selection operators. March 12, 1997. Dates revised: August 26, 1997, October 24, 1997, March 16, 1998, June 15, 1998. Date accepted: June 25, 1998.     

A Strong Converse Inequality for Gamma-Type Operators

We give a strong converse inequality of type A in the usual sup-norm for a noncentered gamma operator L _t ^* , providing at the same time upper and lower constants. This operator, which does not preserve smooth functions, is connected with real Laplace transforms and Poisson mixtures. We use a probabilistic approach based on the representation of L _t ^* in terms of gamma processes. October 15, 1997. Date revised: September 14, 1998. Date accepted: October 7, 1998.     

Uniqueness of Markov-Extremal Polynomials on Symmetric Convex Bodies

For a compact set K\subset R ^d with nonempty interior, the Markov constants M _n (K) can be defined as the maximal possible absolute value attained on K by the gradient vector of an n -degree polynomial p with maximum norm 1 on K . It is known that for convex, symmetric bodies M _n (K) = n ² /r(K) , where r(K) is the ``half-width' (i.e., the radius of the maximal inscribed ball) of the body K . We study extremal polynomials of this Markov inequality, and show that they are essentially unique if and only if K has a certain geometric property, called flatness. For example, for the unit ball B ^d (\smallbf 0, 1) we do not have uniqueness, while for the unit cube [-1,1] ^d the extremal polynomials are essentially unique. September 9, 1999. Date revised: September 28, 2000. Date accepted: November 14, 2000.     

A note on an error estimate for least squares approximation

An asymptotic expansion is obtained which provides upper and lower bounds for the error of the bestL ₂ polynomial approximation of degreen forx ⁿ⁺¹ on [–1, 1]. Because the expansion proceeds in only even powers of the reciprocal of the large variable, and the error made by truncating the expansion is numerically less than, and has the same sign as the first neglected term, very good bounds can be obtained. Via a result of Phillips, these results can be extended fromx ⁿ⁺¹ to anyfC ⁿ⁺¹[–1, 1], provided upper and lower bounds for the modulus off ⁽ⁿ⁺¹⁾ are available.     

On the Norm of the Fourier—Gegenbauer Projection in Weighted L p Spaces

We extend the results of Pollard [4] and give asymptotic estimates for the norm of the Fourier—Gegenbauer projection operator in the appropriate weighted L _p space. In particular, we settle the question of whether the projection is bounded for p=(2λ+1)/λ and p=(2λ+1)/(λ+1) , where λ is the index for the family of Gegenbauer polynomials under consideration. March 19, 1997. Date revised: June 3, 1998. Date accepted: August 1, 1998.     

Contracted Zero Distributions of Extremal Polynomials Associated with Slowly Decaying Weights

We consider the asymptotic zero behavior of polynomials that are extremal with respect to slowly decaying weights on [0, ∈fty) , such as the log-normal weight \exp(-γ ² log  ² x) . The zeros are contracted by taking the appropriate d _n th roots with d _n →∈fty . The limiting distribution of the contracted zeros is described in terms of the solution of an extremal problem in logarithmic potential theory with a circular symmetric external field. November 23, 1998. Date revised: February 8, 1999. Date accepted: March 2, 1999.     

Direct and Inverse Estimates for Bernstein Polynomials

Direct estimates for the Bernstein operator are presented by the Ditzian—Totik modulus of smoothness , whereby the step-weight φ is a function such that φ ² is concave. The inverse direction will be established for those step-weights φ for which φ ² and , are concave functions. This combines the classical estimate (φ=1 ) and the estimate developed by Ditzian and Totik ( ). In particular, the cases , λ∈[0,1] , are included. August 2, 1996. Date revised: March 28, 1997.     

On Converse Marcinkiewicz—Zygmund Inequalities in L p ,p>1

We obtain converse Marcinkiewicz—Zygmund inequalities such as for polynomials P of degree ≤ n-1 , under general conditions on the points {t _j } ⁿ _j=1 and on the function ν . The weights {μ _j } ⁿ _j=1 are appropriately chosen. We illustrate the results by applying them to extended Lagrange interpolation for exponential weights on [-1,1] . December 3, 1997. Date revised: December 7, 1998. Date accepted: January 8, 1999.