Paper Title:

An Algorithm to Compute Gaussian-Type Quadrature Formulae
that Integrate Polynomials and Some Spline Functions Exactly

Author(s):

Allal Guessab

Laboratoire de Mathématiques Appliquées,
Université de Pau, 64000, Pau,
France.
allal.guessab@univ-pau.fr
URL: http://www.univ-pau.fr/~aguessab/

Abstract:

It is well-known that for sufficiently smooth integrands on an interval, numerical integration can be performed stably and efficiently via the classical (polynomial) Gauss quadrature formulae. However, for many other sets of integrands these quadrature formulae do not perform well. A very natural way of avoiding this problem is to include a wide class among arbitrary functions (not necessary polynomials) to be integrated exactly. The spline functions are natural candidates for such problems. In this paper, after studying Gaussian type quadrature formulae which are exact for spline functions and which contain boundary terms involving derivatives at both end points, we present a fast algorithm for computing their nodes and weights. It is also shown, taking advantage of the close connection with ordinary Gauss quadrature formula, that the latter are computed, via eigenvalues and eigenvectors of real symmetric tridiagonal matrices. Hence a new class of quadrature formulae can then be computed directly by standard software for ordinary Gauss quadrature formula. Comparative results with classical Gauss quadrature formulae are given to illustrate the numerical performance of the approach.

Full Text PDF: