Nonlinear piecewise polynomial approximation and multivariate \(BV\) spaces of a Wiener-L. Young type. I. (Q526863)

Let \(V_{pq}^{k}\) be the space of all functions \(f \in L_{q}([0,1)^{d})\) which have bounded \(p\)-variation of order \(k \in \mathbb{N}.\) The corresponding seminorm is given by \[ | f |_{V_{pq}^{k}} := \operatorname{var}_{p}^{k}(f;L_{q}) = \sup_{\Delta} \, \left\{ \sum_{Q\in\Delta} \, \mathrm{osc}_{q}^{k}(f;Q)^{p} \right\}^{1/p}, \] where \(\Delta\) runs over disjoint families of cubes \(Q \subset [0,1)^{d}\) and \(\operatorname{osc}_{q}^{k}(f;Q) := \sup_{h \in \mathbb{R}^{d}} \, \| \Delta_{h}^{k} f \|_{L_{q}(Q_{kh})},\) \(\Delta_{h}^{k} := \sum_{j=0}^{k} \, (-1)^{k-j} \binom{k}{j} \delta_{jh}\) and \(Q_{kh} := \{ x \in \mathbb{R}^{d} \mid x+jh \in Q, j=0,1,\ldots, k \}.\) The smoothness of the space \(V_{pq}^{k}\) denoted by \(s(V_{pq}^{k})\) is a real number given by \(s(V_{pq}^{k}) := d \left( \frac{1}{p} - \frac{1}{q} \right).\) The main result of the paper is the following theorem. Theorem. Let \(f \in V_{pq}^{k}\) be of smoothness \(s := s(V_{pq}^{k}) \in (0,k],\) \(1 \leq p<q< \infty\) and \(N \in \mathbb{N}.\) There exist a family \(\Delta_{N}\) of \(N\) dyadic subcubes of \([0,1)^{d}\) and a piecewise polynomial \(g_{N}\) over \(\Delta_{N}\) of degree \(k-1\) such that \[ \| f -g_{N} \|_{q} \leq C N^{-s/d} | f |_{V_{pq}^{k}}. \]