Cohomology vanishing¶and a problem in approximation theory

For a simplicial subdivison Δ of a region in k ⁿ (k algebraically closed) and r∈N, there is a reflexive sheaf ? on P ⁿ , such that H ⁰(?(d)) is essentially the space of piecewise polynomial functions on Δ, of degree at most d, which meet with order of smoothness r along common faces. In 9], Elencwajg and Forster give bounds for the vanishing of the higher cohomology of a bundle ℰ on P ⁿ in terms of the top two Chern classes and the generic splitting type of ℰ. We use a spectral sequence argument similar to that of 16] to characterize those Δ for which ? is actually a bundle (which is always the case for n= 2). In this situation we can obtain a formula for H ⁰(?(d)) which involves only local data; the results of 9] cited earlier allow us to give a bound on the d where the formula applies. We also show that a major open problem in approximation theory may be formulated in terms of a cohomology vanishing on P ² and we discuss a possible connection between semi-stability and the conjectured answer to this open problem. Received: 9 April 2001