Positive results and counterexamples in comonotone approximation (Q714944)

Let \(\mathbb{P}_{n}\) be the linear space of polynomials of degree at most \(n-1\). For a continuous function \(f\) in an interval \([a,b]\), the degree of best approximation is denoted by \[ E_{n}(f, [a,b]) = \inf \{ \|f-P_{n}\|_{[a,b]}, P_{n}\in \mathbb{P}_{n}\}. \] For \(s\geq1\), let \(\mathbf{Y}_{s} ([a,b])\) denote the family of all subsets \(Y_{s}= \{y_{i}, i= 1, \dots , s, a < y_{1} < \dots < y_{s} < b \}\). \(\Delta ^{1} (Y_{s};[a,b])\) will denote the set of functions \(f\) which are continuous in \([a,b]\), nondecreasing on \([y_{s},b],\) nonincreasing in \([y_{s-1}, y_{s}],\) and so on, and, finally, \((-1)^{s}f\) is nondecreasing on \([a, y_{1}].\) If \(s\geq1\) is the number of changes of monotonicity of the function \(f,\) then let introduce the set \(A_{s}= \{j: 1\leq j\leq s-1,\text{ or }j= 2k, 1\leq k\leq s\}\), \(s\geq 2,\) and \(A_{1}={2}.\) For a function \(f\in \Delta ^{1} (Y_{s};[a,b])\), the degree of best comonotone approximation of \(f\) relative to \(Y_{s}\), is defined by \(E_{n}^{(1)}(f,Y_{s})_{[a,b]} = \inf \{ \|f-P_{n}\|_{[a,b]}, P_{n}\in \mathbb{P}_{n}\cap \Delta ^{1} (Y_{s};[a,b])\}.\) On the other hand, let write \[ E_{n}^{1,s}(f)_{[a,b]} = \sup \{E_{n}^{(1)}(f, Y_{s})_{[a,b]}, Y_{s}\in \mathbf{Y}_{s}[a,b], f\in \Delta ^{1} (Y_{s};[a,b])\}. \] The aim of the paper under review is to obtain some information about the behavior of the degree of best comonotone approximation from the knowledge of the degree of best unconstrained approximation. In particular, {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[1.] Given a positive integer number \(s\), let \(\alpha>1\) be such that \(\alpha\) does not belong to \(A_{s}\). If \(f\in \Delta ^{1} (Y_{s};[-1,1])\) for some \(Y_{s}\) and \(n^{\alpha} E_{n}(f,[-1,1]) \leq 1\), \(n\geq 1,\) then there exists a constant \(c(\alpha, s)>0\), depending only on \(\alpha\) and \(s,\) such that \(n^{\alpha} E_{n}^{1,s}(f)_{[-1,1]} \leq c(\alpha, s), n\geq1.\) Notice that the case \(\alpha<1\) has been studied in [\textit{D. Leviatan} and \textit{I. A. Sevchuk}, ``Monotone approximation estimates involving the third modulus of smoothness'', Approximation theory IX. Volume 1. Theoretical aspects. Proceedings of the 9th international conference, Nashville, TN, USA, January 3-6, 1998. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press. Innovations in Applied Mathematics. 223--230 (1998; Zbl 0939.41015)]. \item[2.] Given a positive integer number \(s\), let \(\alpha>0\) be such that \(\alpha \in A_{s}.\) Then, there exists a constant \(c(s)>0,\) depending only on \(s\), such that for each positive integer number \(m\) there exists a function \(f\in C^{1}(-1,1) \cap \Delta ^{1} (Y_{s};[-1,1])\) for some \(Y_{s}\) such that \(n^{\alpha} E_{n}(f,[-1,1]) \leq 1\), \(n\geq 1,\) while \(m^{\alpha} E_{m}^{1,s}(f)_{[-1,1]} \geq c(\alpha, s)\) ln\(~m\), \(m\geq1.\) \end{itemize}} For the sake of completeness, the authors emphasize that, the above result notwithstanding, all is not lost for \(\alpha \in A_{s}\). Indeed, given a positive integer number \(s\), let \(\alpha>0\) be such that \(\alpha \in A_{s}\). If \(f\in \Delta ^{1} (Y_{s};[-1,1])\) and \(n^{\alpha} E_{n}(f,[-1,1])\leq 1, n\geq 1\) , then there exist constants \(c(s)\) and \(N(Y_{s}),\) depending only on \(s\) and \(Y_{s}\), respectively, such that \(n^{\alpha} E_{n}^{(1)}(f, Y_{s})_{[-1,1]} \leq c(s), n\geq N(Y_{s}).\)