Multi-box splines (Q2642562)

For integers \(n\geq 0\), \(r\geq 1\), let \(M\) be the mesh formed by all lines through points in \({\mathbb Z}^2\) in the directions of \(n+r+1\) pairwise linearly independent vectors of \({\mathbb Z}^2\). The paper introduces the `multi-box spline' space \(S_n\) of compactly supported piecewise polynomials \(f\in C^{n-1}\) of degree \(n\) on the mesh \(M\), characterized by the condition that the jump of any \(n\)-th-order derivative of \(f\) across any line in \(M\) can change only at points of \({\mathbb Z}^2\). If \(r=1\), \(S_n\) coincides with the usual box-spline space determined by \(n+2\) pairwise linearly independent vectors in \({\mathbb Z}^2\). If \(r\geq 1\) and at most \(n+1\) lines in \(M\) intersect at points not in \({\mathbb Z}^2\), then \(S_n\) comprises \textit{all} \(C^{n-1}\) piecewise polynomials of degree \(n\) on \(M\) with compact support. It is shown that there are functions \(\varphi_1,\ldots,\varphi_r\) in \(S_n\) such that every element of \(S_n\) is a finite linear combination of shifts of \(\varphi_1,\ldots,\varphi_r\). All such `local generators' \(\varphi=(\varphi_1,\ldots,\varphi_r)\) are characterized by their Fourier transforms. Their shifts are shown to form a Riesz basis if and only if at most \(r\) lines of \(M\) intersect other than in points of \({\mathbb Z}^2\), which can occur for \(n\leq 2r-1\). The nature of the possible symmetries of these generators is studied and three examples of symmetric multi-box splines are given to illustrate the theory: piecewise constant on a four-direction mesh, quadratic spline functions on a five-direction mesh, and cubic spline functions on a highly symmetric eight-direction mesh. This paper extends earlier work of the author for the case \(r=2\) and opens an interesting area for further research.