On approximation of discontinuous functions in L-metric (Q790366)

\textit{M. Carroll} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 46, 132-142 (1974; Zbl 0282.41010)] proved that if \(f\in L^ 1[-1,1]\) having only one point of discontinuity, \(x_ 0\in [-1,1]\), then best approximations to f from \(\Pi_ n\) (real algebraic polynomials of degree \(\leq n)\) in the \(L^ 1\) norm are unique provided \(x_ 0\not\in \cup^{n+1}_{k=1}\{\cos k\pi /(n+2)\}.\) Furthermore, if \(x_ 0\) belongs to this union then there exists an \(f\in L^ 1[-1,1]\) having \(x_ 0\) as its only discontinuity for which uniqueness fails. In this paper the author examines the non- uniqueness case more closely. In particular, it is shown that it suffices to take for f(x) a step function with a single jump at \(x_ 0\) and the paper gives a detailed analysis of this case achieving some interesting results.