Approximation of rough functions (Q2630381)

The authors establish the existence and uniqueness of solutions \(f \in L^{p}(\mathbb{R}),\) to the equation \[ f(x) - a f(bx) = g(x), \tag{1} \] where \(p \in [1,\infty]\) and \(g : \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}\) with \(g \in L^{p}(\mathbb{R})\) are given, and \(a, b \in \mathbb{R}\) with \(b \neq 0\) and \(| a | \neq | b |^{1/p}.\) For a smooth function \(g\) the solution \(f\) is often rough, possessing fractal features. When \(a\), \(b\) and \(g\) are chosen appropriately, the solutions of (1) include the classical nowhere differentiable functions of Bolzano, Weierstrass, Hardy, Takagi, and others. It is shown that if \(g\) is continuous, then the solution \(f\) is also continuous. The solutions to the functional equation (1) include also fractal interpolation functions. Finally, equation (1) can be used to obtain orthogonal expansions, called Weierstrass-Fourier series, and corresponding approximants, for various functions, both smooth and rough.