Positive spline operators and orthogonal splines (Q5916464)

Let \(\{M_{i,k}\}\) be the B-splines of degree k associated with a given partition of [0,1]. The author studies the operator \(U_{n,k}f(x)=\sum \int^{1}_{0}M_{i,k}(t)f(t)dt N_{i,k}(x)\) where \(N_{i,k}\) are the corresponding B-splines normalized by \(\sum N_{i,k}(x)=1\). He proves some properties of \(U_ nf\) (positivity, convergence on \(L_ p)\). Further he shows that the eigenfunctions of \(U_ nf\) are related to the classical Legendre polynomials.