The missing Wendland functions (Q618776)

The Wendland radial basis functions [\textit{H. Wendland}, Adv. Comput. Math. 4, No.~4, 389--396 (1995; Zbl 0838.41014)] are piecewise polynomial compactly supported reproducing kernels in Hilbert spaces which are norm-equivalent to Sobolev spaces. But they only cover the Sobolev spaces \[ H^{d/2+k+1/2}(\mathbb R^d),\quad k\in\mathbb N, \] and leave out the integer order spaces in even dimensions. The missing Wendland functions are derived working for half-integer \(k\) and even dimensions, reproducing integer-order Sobolev spaces in even dimensions, but they turn out to have two additional non-polynomial terms: a logarithm and a square root. To give these functions a solid mathematical foundation, a generalized version of the ``dimension walk'' is applied. While the classical dimension walk proceeds in steps of two space dimensions taking single derivatives, the new one proceeds in steps of single dimensions and uses ``halved'' derivatives of fractional calculus.