Whitney type inequalities for local anisotropic polynomial approximation

We prove a multivariate Whitney type theorem for the local anisotropic polynomial approximation in L_p(Q) with 1≤p≤∞. Here Q is a d-parallelepiped in R^d with sides parallel to the coordinate axes. We consider the error of best approximation of a function f by algebraic polynomials of fixed degree at most r_i−1 in variable , and relate it to a so-called total mixed modulus of smoothness appropriate to characterizing the convergence rate of the approximation error. This theorem is derived from a Johnen type theorem on equivalence between a certain K-functional and the total mixed modulus of smoothness which is proved in the present paper.