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22 votes
2 answers
652 views

Does every positive continuous function have a non-negative interpolating polynomial of every degree?

Let $f:[a,b] \to (0,\infty)$ be a continuous function. Then is it necessarily true that for every $n\ge 1$, we can find $n+1$ distinct points $\{x_0,x_1,...,x_n\}$ in $[a,b]$ such that the ...
user521337's user avatar
  • 1,209
12 votes
2 answers
1k views

Low-degree polynomial approximation of the piecewise-linear function $x \mapsto \max(x, 0)$ on an interval $x \in [-R,R]$

For $R > 0$, consider the piecewise-linear function $\sigma_R: [-R,R] \rightarrow \mathbb R^+$, defined by $\sigma_R(x) := \max(x,0)$. Question Given $\epsilon> 0$, find a "low-degree" ...
dohmatob's user avatar
  • 6,853
10 votes
1 answer
594 views

Are the polynomials in $\{1/t\}$ dense in $L^2(0,1)$?

Added. My question in the title was solved (in the negative) by Nik Weaver (in the answer below) and Mateusz Kwaśnicki (in the comments). In both solutions, the reason is that the $L^2$ density fails ...
Vesselin Dimitrov's user avatar
10 votes
2 answers
666 views

Reference request: Extensions of Wiener's Tauberian Theorem

Wiener's Tauberian Theorem says that linear combinations of translations of a function $f$ are dense in $L^1(\mathbb{R})$ if and only if the zero set of the Fourier transform of $f$ is empty. This is ...
JohnA's user avatar
  • 710
10 votes
1 answer
900 views

Approximation of a compactly supported function by Gaussians

Let $f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ be a smooth function whose support is a closed interval, e.g. $\text{supp}(f)=[a,b]$. Then $f$ can be approximated (e.g. in $L^2$) by a linear combination of Gaussian ...
JohnA's user avatar
  • 710
9 votes
1 answer
499 views

Subspaces of $L^2(0,1)$ dense on every truncation $L^2(c,1)$

It may be better to move this to a separate question. Let me call a linear subspace $V \subset L^2(0,1)$ to be tame if, for every linear subspace $W \subset V$, either $W$ is dense in $L^2(0,1)$, or ...
Vesselin Dimitrov's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
644 views

Given any sequence of interpolating nodes, can we find a continuous function $f$ whose interpolating polynomials doesn't converge to $f$ point-wise

Let $[a,b]$ be an interval in real line . Given any function $f:[a,b]\to \mathbb R$ and set $A \subseteq [a,b]$ of size $n+1$, there exists a unique polynomial $p_{f,A,n}(x)$ of degree $n$ such that $...
user521337's user avatar
  • 1,209
5 votes
0 answers
195 views

What are the possible $L^{\infty}$ closures of an integration-invariant linear subspace of $C([0,1],\mathbb{R})$?

Let $S \subset C([0,1],\mathbb{R})$ be an $\mathbb{R}$-linear subspace that is invariant under the $T := \int_0^x$ integration operation: if $g \in S$ then the function $f = Tg$ defined pointwise by $...
Vesselin Dimitrov's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
417 views

Approximation of a $C^{\infty}_c$ function by tensor products

Suppose that $f \in C^{\infty}_c ( \mathbb{R}^2 )$, i.e. $f$ is a $C^{\infty}$ function with compact support defined on $\mathbb{R}^2$. The following link Approximation of smooth compactly supported ...
Richard's user avatar
  • 357