The \(C^m\) norm of a function with prescribed jets. I. (Q616610)

Let \(\vec P= \{P_x\}_{x\in S}\) be a family of polynomials on \(\mathbb{R}^n\) of degree \(k\) indexed by points of a finite set \(S\subset\mathbb{R}^n\). Define a norm of \(\vec P\) by \[ \|\vec P\|:= \text{inf}\{\| F\|_{C^m}: \{T_x(F)\}_{x\in S}=\vec P\}, \] where \(T_x(F)\) stands for the Taylor polynomial of \(F\) at \(x\) of degree \(k\). The author's goal is to obtain an extension of the Whitney extension theorem \[ \|\vec P\|\leq C(k,n)\max\{\|\vec P|_\Sigma\|: \Sigma\subset S,\;\operatorname{card}\Sigma\leq 2\}, \] with \(C(k,n)\) growing exponentially in \(n^k\). The author achieves this result with \(C(k,n)\) replaced by \((1+\varepsilon)\), \(\varepsilon> 0\) arbitrary, by exploiting the families \(\Sigma\subset S\) of cardinality at most \(\mu(\varepsilon)= \mu(\varepsilon, k,n)\); unfortunately, \(\mu(\varepsilon)\) is also enormously large. Another version of this result uses a subfamily the above family of \(\Sigma\) satisfying the condition \(\| x-y\|\geq C(\varepsilon)\operatorname{diam}\Sigma\) for all \(x\neq y\) from \(\Sigma\). Finally, the author proves an analogous result for the \(C^m\) extension of a function \(f: S\to\mathbb{R}\).