On transforming a Tchebycheff system into a strictly totally positive system (Q1890558)

Let \(D\in \mathbb{R}\) be such that \(\inf D, \sup D\not\in D\). The authors discuss relations between various concepts of function systems \(\{u_0, \dots, u_n\}\), like being a Chebyshev (T-) system, a complete Chebyshev (CT-) system, a totally positive (TP-) system and a strictly totally positive (STP-) system etc. and ways of transforming one system to another. They introduce the concept of a canonical system \(\{u_0, \dots, u_n\}\), which is defined as a system which with \(a:= \inf D\), satisfies \[ \lim_{t\to a} {{u_i (t)} \over {u_{i-1} (t)}} =0. \] If the system is a CT-system, then this generalizes a concept that Karlin and Schumaker refer to as a canonical CT-system. The dual system \(\{u_0, \dots, u_n\}^\#\) is defined to be the system \(\{u_n, \dots, u_0\} (-s)\), where \(s\in -D\), and the system \(\{u_0, \dots,u_n\}\) is called bicanonical if both it and \(\{u_0, \dots, u_n\}^\#\) are canonical. Then it is proved among others, that if the system \(\{u_0, \dots, u_n\}\) is a bicanonical basis to a Chebyshev space of functions on \(D\), then each \(u_i\), \(i=0, \dots, n\), has constant (strict) sign in \(D\), and if \(u_0, \dots, u_n>0\), then the system is STP.