Lectures on Constructive Approximation: Fourier, Spline, and Wavelet Methods on the Real Line, the Sphere, and the Ball focuses on spherical problems as they occur in the geosciences and medical imaging. It comprises the author’s lectures on classical approximation methods based on orthogonal polynomials and selected modern tools such as splines and wavelets. Methods for approximating functions on the real line are treated first, as they provide the foundations for the methods on the sphere and the ball and are useful for the analysis of time-dependent (spherical) problems. The author then examines the transfer of these spherical methods to problems on the ball, such as the modeling of the Earth’s or the brain’s interior. Specific topics covered include: * the advantages and disadvantages of Fourier, spline, and wavelet methods * theory and numerics of orthogonal polynomials on intervals, spheres, and balls * cubic splines and splines based on reproducing kernels * multiresolution analysis using wavelets and scaling functions This textbook is written for students in mathematics, physics, engineering, and the geosciences who have a basic background in analysis and linear algebra. The work may also be suitable as a self-study resource for researchers in the above-mentioned fields.

This volume contains contributions from international experts in the fields of constructive approximation. This area has reached out to encompass the computational and approximation-theoretical aspects of various interesting fields in applied mathematics.

The current form of modern approximation theory is shaped by many new de velopments which are the subject of this series of conferences. The International Meetings on Approximation Theory attempt to keep track in particular of fun damental advances in the theory of function approximation, for example by (or thogonal) polynomials, (weighted) interpolation, multivariate quasi-interpolation, splines, radial basis functions and several others. This includes both approxima tion order and error estimates, as well as constructions of function systems for approximation of functions on Euclidean spaces and spheres. It is a piece of very good fortune that at all of the IDoMAT meetings, col leagues and friends from all over Europe, and indeed some count ries outside Europe and as far away as China, New Zealand, South Africa and U.S.A. came and dis cussed mathematics at IDoMAT conference facility in Witten-Bommerholz. The conference was, as always, held in a friendly and congenial atmosphere. After each meeting, the delegat es were invited to contribute to the proceed ing's volume, the previous one being published in the same Birkhäuser series as this one. The editors were pleased about the quality of the contributions which could be solicited for the book. They are refereed and we should mention our gratitude to the referees and their work.

In the last 30 years, Approximation Theory has undergone wonderful develop ment, with many new theories appearing in this short interval. This book has its origin in the wish to adequately describe this development, in particular, to rewrite the short 1966 book of G. G. Lorentz, "Approximation of Functions." Soon after 1980, R. A. DeVore and Lorentz joined forces for this purpose. The outcome has been their "Constructive Approximation" (1993), volume 303 of this series. References to this book are given as, for example rCA, p.201]. Later, M. v. Golitschek and Y. Makovoz joined Lorentz to produce the present book, as a continuation of the first. Completeness has not been our goal. In some of the theories, our exposition offers a selection of important, representative theorems, some other cases are treated more systematically. As in the first book, we treat only approximation of functions of one real variable. Thus, functions of several variables, complex approximation or interpolation are not treated, although complex variable methods appear often.

This book presents an in-depth study on advances in constructive approximation theory with recent problems on linear positive operators. State-of-the-art research in constructive approximation is treated with extensions to approximation results on linear positive operators in a post quantum and bivariate setting. Methods, techniques, and problems in approximation theory are demonstrated with applications to optimization, physics, and biology. Graduate students, research scientists and engineers working in mathematics, physics, and industry will broaden their understanding of operators essential to pure and applied mathematics. Topics discussed include: discrete operators, quantitative estimates, post-quantum calculus, integral operators, univariate Gruss-type inequalities for positive linear operators, bivariate operators of discrete and integral type, convergence of GBS operators.

Coupled with its sequel, this book gives a connected, unified exposition of Approximation Theory for functions of one real variable. It describes spaces of functions such as Sobolev, Lipschitz, Besov rearrangement-invariant function spaces and interpolation of operators. Other topics include Weierstrauss and best approximation theorems, properties of polynomials and splines. It contains history and proofs with an emphasis on principal results.