Comonotone approximation and interpolation by entire functions II

Abstract

A theorem of Hoischen states that given a positive continuous function $\varepsilon:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$, an integer $n\geq 0$, and a closed discrete set $E\subseteq\mathbb{R}$, any $C^n$ function $f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ can be approximated by an entire function $g$ so that for $k=0,\dots,n$, and $x\in\mathbb{R}$, $|D^{k}g(x)-D^{k}f(x)|<\varepsilon(x)$, and if $x\in E$ then $D^{k}g(x)=D^{k}f(x)$. The approximating function $g$ is entire and hence piecewise monotone. Building on earlier work, for $n\leq 3$, we determine conditions under which when $f$ is piecewise monotone we can choose $g$ to be comonotone with $f$ (increasing and decreasing on the same intervals), and under which the derivatives of $g$ can be taken to be comonotone with the corresponding derivatives of $f$ if the latter are piecewise monotone. The proof for $n\leq 3$ establishes the theorem for all $n$, assuming a conjecture (shown in previous work with Haris and Madhavendra to hold for $n\leq 3$) regarding the set of $2(n+1)$-tuples $(f(0),Df(0),\dots,D^nf(0),f(1),Df(1),\dots,D^nf(1))$ of the values at the endpoints of the derivatives of a $C^n$ function $f$ on $[0,1]$ for which $D^nf$ is increasing and not constant.