On optimal polynomial meshes (Q719352)

Let \(P^d_n\) be the space of real algebraic polynomials of \(d\) variables and degree at most \(n\), \(K\subset {\mathbb R}^d\) a compact set, \(\| p \|_K:=\sup_{x \in K} |p(x)|\) the usual supremum norm on \(K\), and \(\text{card}(Y)\) the cardinality of a finite set \(Y\). A family of sets \({\mathbf Y}=\{Y_n \in K, \;n \in {\mathbb N }\} \) is called an admissible mesh in \(K\) if there exists a constant \(c_1 > 0\), depending only on \(K\), such that \(\| p \|_K < c_1 \| p \|_{Y_n}\;\;p \in P^d_n, \;n \in {\mathbb N}\) where the cardinality of \(Y_n\) grows at most polynomially. If \(\text{card}(Y_n)\leq c_2 n^d, n\in N\) with some \(c_2>0\) depending only on \(K\) then we say that the admissible mesh is optimal. The goal in this paper is to present sufficiently wide families of sets possessing admissible meshes which are optimal or nearly optimal in the sense that the cardinality of sets \(Y_n\) in the mesh \({\mathbf Y}\) does not grow too fast. The author gives a systematic study of this question by considering two different categories of domains: (a) sets with certain analytic properties, i.e., graph domains bounded by graphs of polynomial, differentiable or analytic functions and (b) sets satisfying certain geometric properties, that is convex bodies, polytopes or star like domains. In particular, he shows that graph domains bounded by polynomial graphs, convex polytopes and star like sets with \(C^2\) boundary possess optimal admissible meshes. In addition, he verifies that graph domains in \({\mathbb R}^d\) with piecewise analytic boundary and convex sets in \({\mathbb R}^2\) possess almost optimal admissible meshes in the sense that the cardinality of admissible meshes differs from the optimal only by a \(\log n\) factor. The author concludes the paper by several examples and open problems.