Conjecture of error boundedness in a new Hermite interpolation problem via splines of odd-degree

We present a Hermite interpolation problem via splines of odd-degree which, to the best knowledge of the authors, has not been considered in the literature on interpolation via odd-degree splines. In this new interpolation problem, we conjecture that the interpolation error is bounded in the supremum norm independently of the locations of the knots. Given an integer k ≥ 3, our spline interpolant is of degree 2k − 1 and with 2k − 4 (interior) knots. Simulations were performed to check the validity of the conjecture. We present strong numerical evidence in support of the conjecture for k = 3, · · · , 10 when the interpolated function belongs to C(2k)[0, 1], the class of 2ktimes continuously differentiable functions on [0, 1]. In this case, the worst interpolation error is proved to be attained by the perfect spline of degree 2k with the same knots as the spline interpolant. This interpolation problem arises naturally in nonparametric estimation of a multiply monotone density via Least Squares and Maximum Likehood methods. 1 Research supported in part by National Science Foundation grant DMS-0203320 2 Research supported in part by National Science Foundation grants DMS-0203320, and NIAID grant 2R01 AI291968-04 AMS 2000 subject classifications.