Vandermonde type determinants and blossoming (Q1128319)

Given a vector function \(\Phi\) of one variable whose derivatives of orders \(\leq n\) are linear independent on the interval considered, the osculating space of order \(n\) at \(\Phi(x)\) is the linear variety, spanned by the derivatives \(\Phi^{(i)}(x)\), \(1\leq i\leq n\), and passing through \(\Phi(x)\). Assume that \(\Phi\) is a Chebyshev function. The blossom of \(\Phi\) is a function of \(n\) variables. For any point \((x_1,\dots, x_n)\) let the coordinates be re-ordered in strictly ascending magnitude as \((\tau_1,\dots, \tau_r)\) where each \(\tau_i\) appears \(\mu_i\) times. The blossom of \(\Phi\) is then a symmetric function \(\varphi\) of \(r\) variables, the intersection of the osculating spaces of order \(n-\mu_i\) at \(\tau_i\). The uniqueness of \(\varphi\) is simply the Chebyshev property. If \(\Phi\) is a Müntz function, whose components are monomials, it is shown that the blossom can be computed by quotients of determinants of Vandermonde type. For small \(n\), the formulas are given explicitly. It is shown that the blossoms are polynomials if and only if \(\Phi= (x^r, x^{r+1},\dots, x^{r+n-1})\) and one deals with real Vandermonde determinants. In any case, the blossom of any polynomial Chebyshev function is rational. As an application, blossoming is used to refine the Bézier points for the Chebyshev spline approximation of a curve, cf. [\textit{L. Ramshaw}, Blossoming: a connect-the-dots approach to splines. Technical Report, Digital Systems Research Center, Palo Alto CA (1987)].