Extreme problems on classes of polynomials and splines (Q1280650)

The author presents a rather general method to prove existence theorems for functions with a given sequence of extrema. These are the main results of the article. Theorem 1. Let \(\{\xi_i\}^N_{i= 0}\subset \mathbb{R}\) satisfy \((-1)^{i+ 1}(\xi_{i+1}- \xi_i)<0\). Then there exists a unique algebraic polynomial \(x(\cdot)\) of degree \(N\) and a unique increasing sequence \(0= \tau_0<\tau_1<\cdots< \tau_N= 1\) such that \[ x(\tau_i)= \xi_i,\quad 0\leq i\leq N,\quad x'(\tau_i)= 0,\quad 1\leq i\leq N-1. \] Let now \(S_m(\pi_n)\) be the collection of splines of order \(m\) with deficiency 1 and nodes \(0< t_1<\cdots< t_n< 1\). Assume that \(m+n= N\). Theorem 2. The statement of Theorem 1 holds for \(S_m(\pi_n)\) with \(\{\tau_i\}^N_{i= 0}\) satisfying \(\tau_i< t_i< \tau_{m+i}\), \(1\leq i\leq n\).