The Faber Operator and its Boundedness

Let G be a domain bounded by a Jordan curve Γ, and let A(G) be the Banach space of functions continuous on G and holomorphic in G. The Faber operator T is a linear mapping from A( ) to A(G) mapping wⁿ onto the nth Faber polynomial F_n(z) (n=0, 1, 2, …). We show that T<∞ if Γ is piecewise Dini-smooth, and give an example of a quasicircle Γ for which T=∞.     

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.     

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.     

Convergence of Rational Interpolants with Preassigned Poles

Let Ω be a domain in the extended complex plane such that ∞∈Ω . Further, let K= C / Ω and, for each n , let Q _n be a monic polynomial of degree n with all its zeros in K . This paper is concerned with whether (Q _n ) can be chosen so that, if f is any holomorphic function on Ω and P _n is the polynomial part of the Laurent expansion of Q _n f at ∞ , then (P _n /Q _n ) converges to f locally uniformly on Ω . It is shown that such a sequence (Q _n ) can be chosen if and only if either K has zero logarithmic capacity or Ω is regular. January 21, 1999. Date accepted: August 17, 1999.     

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.     

Bounds on Projections onto Bivariate Polynomial Spline Spaces with Stable Local Bases

L _& ∞ bounds for norms of projections onto bivariate polynomial spline spaces on regular triangulations with stable local bases are established. The general results are then applied to obtain error bounds for best L ₂ - and l ₂ -approximation by splines on quasi-uniform triangulations. March 8, 2000. Date revised: November 20, 2000. Date accepted: July 9, 2001.     

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.     

An algebraic structure for Faber polynomials

Let Σ be the set of functions, convergent for all |z|>1, with a Laurent series of the form f(z)=z+∑_n?0a_nz^-n. In this paper, we prove that the set of Faber polynomial sequences over Σ and the set of their normalized kth derivative sequences form groups which are isomorphic to the hitting time subgroup and the Bell^(k) subgroup of the Riordan group, respectively. Further, a relationship between such Faber polynomial sequences and Lucas and Sheffer polynomial sequences is derived.     

Rates of Best Uniform Rational Approximation of Analytic Functions by Ray Sequences of Rational Functions

In this paper, problems related to the approximation of a holomorphic function f on a compact subset E of the complex plane C by rational functions from the class of all rational functions of order (n,m) are considered. Let ρ _n,m = ρ _n,m (f;E) be the distance of f in the uniform metric on E from the class . We obtain results characterizing the rate of convergence to zero of the sequence of the best rational approximation { ρ _n,m(n) } _n=0 ^∞ , m(n)/n → θ ∈ (0,1] as n → ∞ . In particular, we give an upper estimate for the liminf _{n →∞} ρ _n,m(n) ^1/(n+m(n)) in terms of the solution to a certain minimum energy problem with respect to the logarithmic potential. The proofs of the results obtained are based on the methods of the theory of Hankel operators. June 16, 1997. Date revised: December 1, 1997. Date accepted: December 1, 1997. Communicated by Ronald A. DeVore.     

An update on orthogonal polynomials and weighted approximation on the real line

We briefly review the state of orthogonal polynomials on (–, ), concentrating on analytic aspects, such as asymptotics and bounds on orthogonal polynomials, their zeros and their recurrence coefficients. We emphasize results rather than proofs. We also discuss applications to mean convergence of orthogonal expansions, Lagrange interpolation, Jackson-Bernstein theorems and the weighted incomplete polynomial approximation problem.     

Best Meromorphic Approximation of Markov Functions on the Unit Circle

Let E subset(-1,1) be a compact set, let μ be a positive Borel measure with support supp μ =E , and let H _p (G), 1≤ p ≤∈fty, be the Hardy space of analytic functions on the open unit disk G with circumference Γ={z colon |z|=1} . Let Δ _n,p be the error in best approximation of the Markov function frac{1}{2π i} ∈t_E frac{d μ(x)}{z-x} in the space L _p (Γ) by meromorphic functions that can be represented in the form h=P/Q , where P ∈ H _p (G), Q is a polynomial of degree at most n , Qnot equiv 0 . We investigate the rate of decrease of Δ _n,p , 1≤ p ≤∈fty , and its connection with n -widths. The convergence of the best meromorphic approximants and the limiting distribution of poles of the best approximants are described in the case when 1<p≤∈fty and the measure μ with support E=[a,b] satisfies the Szegő condition ∈t_a^b frac{log(d μ/ d x)}{sqrt{(x-a)(b-x)}} dx >- ∈fty. July 27, 2000. Final version received: May 19, 2001.     

The Critical Values of a Polynomial

It has been known for a long time that any real sequence y ₁ , . . . ,y _n-1 is the sequence of critical values of some real polynomial. Here we show that any complex sequence w ₁ , . . . ,w _n-1 is the sequence of critical values of some complex polynomial.     

Piecewise Monotone Pointwise Approximation

Let r, k, s be three integers such that , or We prove the following: Proposition. Let Y:={y _i } _i=1 ^s be a fixed collection of distinct points y _i ∈ (-1,1) and Π (x):= (x-y ₁ ). ... .(x-y _s ). Let I:=[-1,1]. If f ∈ C ^(r) (I) and f'(x)Π(x) ≥ 0, x ∈ I, then for each integer n ≥ k+r-1 there is an algebraic polynomial P _n =P _n (x) of degree ≤ n such that P _n '(x) Π (x) ≥ 0 and $$ \vert f(x)-P_n(x) \vert \le B\left(\frac{1}{n^2}+\frac{1}{n}\sqrt{1-x^2}\right)^r \omega_k \left(f^{(r)};\frac{1}{n^2}+\frac{1}{n}\sqrt{1-x^2}\right) \legno{(1)}$$ for all x∈ I, where ω _k (f ^(r) ;t) is the modulus of smoothness of the k -th order of the function f ^(r) and B is a constant depending only on r , k , and Y. If s=1, the constant B does not depend on Y except in the case (r=1, k=3). In addition it is shown that (1) does not hold for r=1, k>3. March 20, 1995. Dates revised: March 11, 1996; December 20, 1996; and August 7, 1997.     

Uniform Approximation by Entire Functions That Are All Bounded on a Given Set

For two closed sets F and G in the complex plane C, G C , we solve the following problem Under what conditions on F and G can every function f , continuous on F and analytic in its interior, be uniformly approximated by entire functions, each of which is bounded on G ? February 7, 1995. Date revised: October 31, 1995.     

On the Structure of Harmonic Multi-Vector Functions

Let F_r (0 < r < m + 1) be a smooth r-vector valued function in a suitable open domain of satisfying in Ω, where ∂ is the Dirac operator in . Then it is proved that there exists H _r , an r-vector valued harmonic function in Ω, such that F _r = . Two proofs of this structure theorem are given, one based on properties of harmonic differential forms and one relying upon primitivation of monogenic functions.     

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.     

Computing Numerically with Functions Instead of Numbers

Symbolic computation with functions of a real variable suffers from combinatorial explosion of memory and computation time. The alternative chebfun system for such computations is described, based on Chebyshev expansions and barycentric interpolation. For Richard Brent on his 60th birthday