Characterization theorems for the approximation by a family of operators (Q1908219)

The aim of this paper is to study a family of positive approximation operators \(P_n\) which generalize the ordinary Bernstein operator. These operators depend on a so-called ``construction parameter'' \(\alpha\geq 0\) and cover several known approximation methods, on the one hand the classical Bernstein polynomials (for \(\alpha\to \infty\)) and on the other hand the Durrmeyer polynomials with Jacobi weights (for \(\alpha =0\)). In terms of the modulus of continuity and the Ditzian-Totik modulus of smoothness the authors investigate for this family of approximation methods also the complete local and global characterization theorems and equivalence results. One can see that the approximation properties of these operators are closely related to the smoothness behaviour of the function \(f\) to be approximated. Let \(f\in C([0,1])\). Then \(0< \beta<1\), (1) \(|f-P_n f|_\infty= O(n^{-\beta})\) if and only if (2) \(\omega^2_\varphi (f;t )_\infty= O (t^{2\beta})\). Furtheron, let \(f\in C([0,1])\) and \(0\leq \alpha<1\). If, case 1: \(0<\beta<1\) for \(\alpha=0\) or case 2: \(0< \beta\leq \alpha+1\) for \(0< \alpha< 1\), then \[ |f(x)- P_n (f; x)|\leq C\biggl( {{x(1-x)} \over n} +{1\over {n^2}} \biggr)^{\beta/2}, \qquad x\in [0,1 ], \tag{3} \] if and only if (4) \(\omega_2 (f;t)=O (t^\beta)\). The authors derived some common and also different parts of this family \(P_n\). For \(f\in C([0,1])\) and \(\alpha\geq 1\) the same equivalence is true for \(0<\beta <2\). Therefore they found that there exists no ``cut-off'' for \(\alpha\geq 1\) while the ``cut-off'' is in \(1+\alpha\) for \(0\leq \alpha<1\). Therefore they found surprising characterization results and new interesting aspects.