Existence of Gaussian quadrature formulas for Birkhoff type data (Q1108513)

Gaussian quadrature formulas show the well-known property of double precision, viz. for certain knots \(x_ i\) and corresponding weights \(a_ i\) a formula \(\int^{1}_{0}f(x)dx=\sum^{n}_{i=1}a_ if(x_ i)\) holds for all polynomials f of degree at most 2n-1. Formulas of Gauss-Birkhoff type generalize this inasmuch as data \(f^{(j)}(x_ i)\), for certain pairs (i,j), are used instead. The paper gives an existence theorem for such Gauss-Birkhoff formulas which contains all previously known cases. The proof is based on elements of nonlinear functional analysis, in the form of an application of Borsuk's antipodal lemma. As usual in Birkhoff interpolation, the assumptions on the pairs (i,j) are formulated in terms of incidence matrices E. Essentially, one needs the bottom blocks of E to be in ``pyramidal'' positions.