Linear independence of pseudo-splines

In this paper, we show that the shifts of a pseudo-spline are linearly independent. This is stronger than the (more obvious) statement that the shifts of a pseudo-spline form a Riesz system. In fact, the linear independence of a compactly supported (refinable) function and its shifts has been studied in several areas of approximation and wavelet theory. Furthermore, the linear independence of the shifts of a pseudo-spline is a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a compactly supported function whose shifts form a biorthogonal dual system of the shifts of the pseudo-spline.