Approximation Theory Xiii

These proceedings were prepared in connection with the international conference Approximation Theory XIII, which was held March 7–10, 2010 in San Antonio, Texas. The conference was the thirteenth in a series of meetings in Approximation Theory held at various locations in the United States, and was attended by 144 participants. Previous conferences in the series were held in Austin, Texas (1973, 1976, 1980, 1992), College Station, Texas (1983, 1986, 1989, 1995), Nashville, Tennessee (1998), St. Louis, Missouri (2001), Gatlinburg, Tennessee (2004), and San Antonio, Texas (2007). Along with the many plenary speakers, the contributors to this proceedings provided inspiring talks and set a high standard of exposition in their descriptions of new directions for research. Many relevant topics in approximation theory are included in this book, such as abstract approximation, approximation with constraints, interpolation and smoothing, wavelets and frames, shearlets, orthogonal polynomials, univariate and multivariate splines, and complex approximation.

The book incorporates research papers and surveys written by participants ofan International Scientific Programme on Approximation Theory jointly supervised by Institute for Constructive Mathematics of University of South Florida at Tampa, USA and the Euler International Mathematical Instituteat St. Petersburg, Russia. The aim of the Programme was to present new developments in Constructive Approximation Theory. The topics of the papers are: asymptotic behaviour of orthogonal polynomials, rational approximation of classical functions, quadrature formulas, theory of n-widths, nonlinear approximation in Hardy algebras,numerical results on best polynomial approximations, wavelet analysis. FROM THE CONTENTS: E.A. Rakhmanov: Strong asymptotics for orthogonal polynomials associated with exponential weights on R.- A.L. Levin, E.B. Saff: Exact Convergence Rates for Best Lp Rational Approximation to the Signum Function and for Optimal Quadrature in Hp.- H. Stahl: Uniform Rational Approximation of x .- M. Rahman, S.K. Suslov: Classical Biorthogonal Rational Functions.- V.P. Havin, A. Presa Sague: Approximation properties of harmonic vector fields and differential forms.- O.G. Parfenov: Extremal problems for Blaschke products and N-widths.- A.J. Carpenter, R.S. Varga: Some Numerical Results on Best Uniform Polynomial Approximation of x on 0,1 .- J.S. Geronimo: Polynomials Orthogonal on the Unit Circle with Random Recurrence Coefficients.- S. Khrushchev: Parameters of orthogonal polynomials.- V.N. Temlyakov: The universality of the Fibonacci cubature formulas.

This textbook is designed for graduate students in mathematics, physics, engineering, and computer science. Its purpose is to guide the reader in exploring contemporary approximation theory. The emphasis is on multi-variable approximation theory, i.e., the approximation of functions in several variables, as opposed to the classical theory of functions in one variable. Most of the topics in the book, heretofore accessible only through research papers, are treated here from the basics to the currently active research, often motivated by practical problems arising in diverse applications such as science, engineering, geophysics, and business and economics. Among these topics are projections, interpolation paradigms, positive definite functions, interpolation theorems of Schoenberg and Micchelli, tomography, artificial neural networks, wavelets, thin-plate splines, box splines, ridge functions, and convolutions. An important and valuable feature of the book is the bibliography of almost 600 items directing the reader to important books and research papers. There are 438 problems and exercises scattered through the book allowing the student reader to get a better understanding of the subject.

These proceedings were prepared in connection with the 14th International Conference on Approximation Theory, which was held April 7-10, 2013 in San Antonio, Texas. The conference was the fourteenth in a series of meetings in Approximation Theory held at various locations in the United States. The included invited and contributed papers cover diverse areas of approximation theory with a special emphasis on the most current and active areas such as compressed sensing, isogeometric analysis, anisotropic spaces, radial basis functions and splines. Classical and abstract approximation is also included. The book will be of interest to mathematicians, engineers\ and computer scientists working in approximation theory, computer-aided geometric design, numerical analysis and related application areas.

Most functions that occur in mathematics cannot be used directly in computer calculations. Instead they are approximated by manageable functions such as polynomials and piecewise polynomials. The general theory of the subject and its application to polynomial approximation are classical, but piecewise polynomials have become far more useful during the last twenty years. Thus many important theoretical properties have been found recently and many new techniques for the automatic calculation of approximations to prescribed accuracy have been developed. This book gives a thorough and coherent introduction to the theory that is the basis of current approximation methods. Professor Powell describes and analyses the main techniques of calculation supplying sufficient motivation throughout the book to make it accessible to scientists and engineers who require approximation methods for practical needs. Because the book is based on a course of lectures to third-year undergraduates in mathematics at Cambridge University, sufficient attention is given to theory to make it highly suitable as a mathematical textbook at undergraduate or postgraduate level.