An improved estimate of PSWF approximation and approximation by Mathieu functions

In this paper, an error estimate of spectral approximations by prolate spheroidal wave functions (PSWFs) with explicit dependence on the bandwidth parameter and optimal order of convergence is derived, which improves the existing result in Chen et al., Spectral methods based on prolate spheroidal wave functions for hyperbolic PDEs, SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 43 (5) (2005) 1912-1933]. The underlying argument is applied to analyze spectral approximations of periodic functions by Mathieu functions, which leads to new estimates featured with explicit dependence on the intrinsic parameter.