Uniform Approximation by Polynomials with Integer Coefficients via the Bernstein Lattice

Abstract

Let $\mathscr{C}_\mathbb{Z}([0,1])$ be the metric space of real-valued continuous functions on $[0,1]$ with integer values at $0$ and $1$, equipped with the uniform (supremum) metric $d_\infty$. It is a classical theorem in approximation theory that the ring $\mathbb{Z}[X]$ of polynomials with integer coefficients, when considered as a set of functions on $[0,1]$, is dense in $\mathscr{C}_\mathbb{Z}([0,1])$. In this paper, we offer a strengthening of this result by identifying a substantially small subset $\bigcup_n \mathscr{B}_n$ of $\mathbb{Z}[X]$ which is still dense in $\mathscr{C}_\mathbb{Z}([0,1])$. Here $\mathscr{B}_n$, which we call the ``Bernstein lattice,'' is the lattice generated by the polynomials $$p_{n,k}(x) := \binom{n}{k} x^k(1-x)^{n-k}, ~~k=0,\dots,n.$$ Quantitatively, we show that for any $f \in \mathscr{C}_\mathbb{Z}([0,1])$, $$d_\infty(f, \mathscr{B}_n) \leq \frac{9}{4} \omega_f(n^{-1/3}) + 2 n^{-1/3}, ~~n \geq 1,$$ where $\omega_f$ stands for the modulus of continuity of $f$. We also offer a more general bound which can be optimized to yield better decay of approximation error for specific classes of continuous functions.