Splines on fractals (Q4518306)

The authors consider compact finitely ramified fractals \(K\) with ``Laplacians'' \(\Delta\) in the sense of Kigami. The corresponding potential theory resembles the classical Laplacian on the unit interval. On the open interval the polynomials of degree at most \(2j +1\) are exactly the solutions of \(\Delta_{\text{interval}} u \equiv 0\). Let the finite set \(V_0\) denote the essential fixed points of \(K\), then \(K\setminus V_0\) is open with boundary \(V_0\), and the solutions of \(\Delta^j u \equiv 0\) on this set become fractal ``polynomials.'' The space \({\mathcal H}\) of all functions \(\Delta\)-harmonic on \(K \setminus V_0\) is known to be \(|V_0|\)-dimensional. Denote the Green's function (the inverse) of \(-\Delta\) with respect to Dirichlet boundary conditions in \(V_0\) by \(G\). Then a fractal ``polynomial'' must be of the form \(\sum_{k=0}^{j-1} (-G)^k h_{j-k}\) with \(h_k \in {\mathcal H}\) for \(1 \leq k \leq j\). This shows that the space of fractal ``polynomials'' of degree at most \(2j+1\) has dimension \(|V_0|\cdot j\). Like the interval, \(K\) consists of scaled copies of itself overlapping only in ``boundary points'' (scaled copies of \(V_0\)). To define fractal ``splines'', local ``polynomials'' are patched together in ``boundary points'' such that their ``normal derivatives'' (appearing in a fractal Gauss-Green formula) cancel. Once this is done, one can consider ``finite elements'' and ``Simpson's rule.''.