Variable degree polynomial splines are Chebyshev splines (Q1946519)

The set of functions \(\{u_1=1,u_2,\dotsc,u_n\}\) defined on \([0,1]\) is said to be a canonical complete Chebyshev (CCC)-system if there exist \(\{\sigma_i\}_{i=1}^n\) that are monotone increasing, right-continuous functions on \([0,1]\), left-continuous at \(1\), such that each subinterval of \([0,1]\) is measurable with respect to each of these \(\sigma_i\), and \[ u_2(x) = \int_0^x d\sigma_2(\tau_2), \] \[ u_i(x) = \int_0^x d\sigma_2(\tau_2) \int_0^{\tau_2} d\sigma_3(\tau_3)\dotsm \int_0^{\tau_{i-1}} d\sigma_{i}(\tau_{i}),\qquad i\geq 3. \] If the \(d\sigma_i\) are dominated by the Lebesgue measure, then the set of functions is often called an ECT-system. In this paper, variable degree polynomial splines of order \(k\), \(k\geq 2\), are defined as functions in the span of \(\{1,x,\dotsc, x^{k-2}, (x-x_i)^{m_i}, (x_{i+1}-x)^{n_i}\}\) for \(k>2\) and in the span of \(\{ (x-x_i)^{m_i}, (x_{i+1}-x)^{n_i}\}\) for \(k=2\), on the subintervals \([x_i, x_{i+1})\), \(i=0,1,\dotsc, r\), \(x_0=0<x_1<\dotsb <x_{r+1}=1\), where \(m_i, n_i \geq k-1\). The main result is the proof of the fact that this space is a CCC-space on \([0,1]\).