A deficient spline function approximation to fourth-order differential equations (Q1344694)

The authors consider the initial value problem \(y^{(4)} = f(x,y)\), \(y^{(i)} (0) = y_ i\), \(i = 0,1,2,3\). Spline polynomials of degree 8 and deficiency 4 are used as approximation to the solution. After the description of the method existence and uniqueness of the spline approximation, its consistency and the order of convergence are analyzed. For a trivial initial value problem numerical results are given.