A family of Hermite interpolants by bisection algorithms (Q1192649)

Let \(z\) be the midpoint of \(x\) and \(y\) and \(h=y-x\). The author investigates the iterative scheme \(f(z)=\lambda[f(y)+f(x)]+\lambda'h[f^ 1(y)-f^ 1(x)]\), \(f^ 1(z)=\mu/h[f(y)-f(x)]+\mu'[f(x)+f(y)]\). By iteration one obtains function values at all dyadic points in \([x,y]\) and the question is whether the functions so obtained have a continuous extension over the entire interval and whether \(f^ 1=f'\). Necessary conditions for \((f,f^ 1)\) to be a \(C^ 1\) interpolant are \(\lambda=1/2\), \(\mu'=(1-\mu)/2\). For \(f\) to be \(C^ 2\), the condition is \(\lambda'=-1/8\) and for \(f\in C^ 3\), \(\mu=3/2\), i.e. Hermite cubic interpolation. More in general, \(f\) is \(C^ 1\) iff \(\lambda'=-1/8\) and \(| 2-\mu| < 1\). The author also gives rather complicated necessary and sufficient conditions for \(f'=f^ 1\) to be continuous. Examples show that in the nonclassical cases, \(f'\) is far from differentiable.