Advances in Computational Mathematics 8 (1998) 381399 381

Convergence order estimates of meshless collocation

methods using radial basis functions
Carsten Franke and Robert Schaback
Institut fur Numerische und Angewandte Mathematik der Universitat Gottingen, Lotzestrae 16-18,
D-37083 Gottingen, Germany
E-mail: {franke;schaback}@math.uni-goettingen.de

Received March 1997; revised March 1998

Communicated by W. Dahmen

We study meshless collocation methods using radial basis functions to approximate reg-
ular solutions of systems of equations with linear differential or integral operators. Our
method can be interpreted as one of the emerging meshless methods, cf. T. Belytschko et
al. (1996). Its range of application is not confined to elliptic problems. However, the ap-
plication to the boundary value problem for an elliptic operator, connected with an integral
equation, is given as an example. Although the method has been used for special cases for
about ten years, cf. E.J. Kansa (1990), there are no error bounds known. We put the main
emphasis on detailed proofs of such error bounds, following the general outline described
in C. Franke and R. Schaback (preprint).
Keywords: convergence orders, meshless collocation, radial basis functions, partial differ-
ential equations
AMS subject classification: 35A40, 65N35, 41A25, 41A63, 65R20

1. Introduction
We will treat systems of linear equations, each of the form
Lu = f on , (1.1)
where is a domain in Rd and L is a linear operator, acting on complex valued
functions on . The function f is given (data) and each equation should have a
nonempty space of solutions.

1.1. Collocation method for single equations

Collocation is a well-known method to approximate the solution of equations of
the form (1.1). The idea is to approximate the requested solution u by a function
X
n
su = j j span{j }j=1,...,n , (1.2)
j=1

J.C. Baltzer AG, Science Publishers

382 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions

where the j : C are certain linearly independent basis functions. The connection
between u and su shall be the pointwise equality
(Lsu )(x) = (Lu)(x) = f (x) for all x X ,
or, in short form,
(Lsu )(X ) = f (X ) (1.3)
on a finite, ordered set X of centers. Since X is ordered, f (X ) is a vector.
The set (1.3) of generalized interpolation conditions leads to the linear interpo-
lation system


(Lj )(x) xX , j=1,...,n = f (X ), (1.4)

using (1.2) for collocation. Now there are two main questions:
Does the inverse of the interpolation matrix ((Lj )(x))xX , j=1,...,n exist?
Are there any upper bounds for ksu uk or kLsu Luk?
Both questions will be answered here, with focus on the latter.

1.2. Extension to systems of linear equations

Just a few modifications are necessary to treat a system of linear equations by

collocation. Let L be a linear operator, acting on complex valued functions defined
on . Let
[
N
= (1.5)
=1

be a decomposition of the closure of . Overlap is permitted. We suppose the

system
L u = f on , = 1, . . . , N , (1.6)
to have a solution for the given set {f } of data functions. We shall see that there is
no essential difference between problems with N = 2 or N > 2. A typical example
of the first case is the boundary value problem
Lu = f on 1 := ,
(1.7)
Bu = f on 2 := .
We mainly focus on systems of this form, comprising several operators of different
type. In general, we do not need to restrict the types of operators involved; in particular
we are not confined to elliptic boundary value problems.
Let X denote the collection of all ordered sets X , for = 1, . . . , N. We
subsequently can allow a point x to appear in several of the X , such that different
 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions 383

collocation conditions L u(x) = f (x) can be imposed at a single point. Now the
interpolation system (1.4) takes the form of the N simultaneous equation systems


(L j )(X ) j=1,...,n = f (X ) for = 1, . . . , N . (1.8)

Several ideas exist to choose the basis functions j , j = 1, . . . , n, depending

on X and the operators L , = 1, . . . , N . The theory of interpolation by radial
basis functions has good reasons to let every j depend on a center xj X . Kansa
had numerical success using no dependence on the L and using multiquadrics for j
(cf. [11]). But since the resulting matrix is not symmetric, no one has been able to prove
its nonsingularity so far. Several authors (cf. [4,8,19]) suggest the following method,
which lets the basis functions also depend on the operators. It yields a symmetric
interpolation matrix at the expense of a second application of the linear operators to
the basis functions. This method will be used here.
Let (x, y) be a feasible basis function (see the precise definition in section 2).
Then we define the set of basis functions via
y
j (x) := xyj L (x, y) for xj X , = 1, . . . , N .

For a fixed x, x denotes the linear functional mapping a function f to f (x). For
a given map T , the complex conjugate map T is defined by T (f ) := T (f ), and
the superscript y of T y denotes the application of T to (x, y) with respect to the
variable y.
To simplify the notation, and to connect the theory with HermiteBirkhoff inter-
polation, we define the functionals

j := xj L for xj X , = 1, . . . , N ,

and denote the ordered set of all of these by

:= X L =1,...,N
. (1.9)

Next we define the vector on the right hand side of the interpolation system (1.8) to
be z := (f (X ))=1,...,N . Now this system takes the simple form
y
x (x, y) = z. (1.10)
y
Since is semisymmetric, the interpolation matrix x (x, y) is Hermitian. In [19,
theorem 3.1], it is shown to be positive definite under reasonable conditions, and then
it is invertible. We will reuse parts of the proof of the above-mentioned theorem in an
extended context. To express the dependence of the approximating function su on
and , we subsequently denote it by su,,. It takes the form

X
N X
y
su,,(x) = xj L (x, y) j ,
=1 xj X
384 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions

or briefly,
y
su,,(x) = (x, y) . (1.11)
y
Here, (x, y) is regarded as a 1 n matrix of functions in x.

2. Error analysis and native spaces

Let L be a linear space of complex valued functionals, being defined for functions
on . For example,


L := span {x L}x {x B}x
is useful in the case of the boundary value problem (1.7).

Definition 2.1 (Feasible basis functions and native spaces). A feasible basis function
with respect to L is a function : C, being
semisymmetric: (x, y) = (y, x) for all x, y ,
positive definite: for every finite, nonempty, linearly independent ordered set L,
y
6= 0, the matrix x (x, y) is positive definite, and
sufficiently smooth to apply two functionals , of L to each variable and to let
the functionals commute: x y (x, y) = y x (x, y).
For any feasible basis function , the term
h | iF := x y (x, y) (2.1)
defines a scalar product on the dual native space

F := : h | iF < with L F . (2.2)
Subsequently it is assumed to be a Hilbert space. The dual F of F is identified
with the native space

F := f : kf kF < (2.3)
of (generalized) functions f which allow to be evaluated by all F . The norm is
defined by
|(f )|
kf kF := sup . (2.4)
F ,6=0 kkF
Since F is a Hilbert space, so is F .

Remark 2.2. The term x y (x, y) in equation (2.1) defines a scalar product, since
it is sesquilinear and is assumed to be positive definite. Methods for proving the
positive definiteness and examples are given in section 3.
 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions 385

Remark 2.3. We assumed F to be a Hilbert space, i.e., it has to be complete. The

construction of the maximal dual native space to a given class L of functionals and a
basis function having a Fourier transform is described in [10]. In addition, conditionally
positive definite basis functions are allowed there.

Remark 2.4. The approximating function su,, is an element of F , since we have

(su,,) = h | iF for every F .

Theorem 2.5. Let be a feasible basis function, F be linearly independent and

y
u F . Let su,, span (, y) be the reconstruction of u, i.e., (su,, ) = (u).
Then the bound
 
(u) (su,,) 6 P, () ku su,,kF (2.5)

for the reconstruction error |(u) (su,,)| holds for every F , where
P, () := inf k kF (2.6)
span

is called the power function of . Optimization theory yields

ku su,, kF = infy ku skF , (2.7)
sspan (,y)

cf. [13, theorem 4.1; 20, theorem 1].

Proof. Since we have (su,,) = (u), we know u su,, = 0 for all
span . Therefore we can estimate
   
(u) (su,,) = ( )(u su,,) 6 k kF ku su,,kF . 

Equations (2.5)(2.7) show how the influences of a test functional and of the
function u on the error are separable. This separation results in two approximation
errors: The power function is the error of approximation of in span , while the
y
second factor is the error concerning u and span (, y). This factor is independent
of .
To adapt the previous theorem to systems of linear equations, we need some
information about the behaviour of the power function concerning ordered subsets 0
of , which contain functionals of the same type.

Theorem 2.6 (Splitting Theorem). The inclusion 0 F implies

P, () 6 P,0 () for all F
and
ku su,,kF 6 ku su,0, kF for all u F .
386 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions

Proof. 0 implies span 0 span . Therefore we find

inf k kF > inf k kF
span 0 span

for the infima. The second assertion is proved analogously, using equation (2.7). 

The Splitting Theorem allows us to focus our attention on just one (denoted
by to save subscripts), its centers X := X and its operator L := L , as they are
given in section 1.2.

Theorem 2.7 (Transformation Theorem). Let (x, y) be a feasible basis function. Let
y
the linear functionals (z L)x and y applied to L (x, y) commute for all z
and F . If

v
L (x, y) := (x L)u y L (u, v) (2.8)
is also a feasible basis function, and F L , FL and PL , are defined for it according
to definition 2.1 and equation (2.6), then
kkF = k LkF (2.9)
L

for all F L . The equation

PL , () = P,L ( L) (2.10)
holds for every finite F L and F L .
If the operator L : F F has a norm kLk < , and if all involved func-
tionals and are in F F L , then
P,L ( L) 6 P, () kLk . (2.11)
But note that in general, differential operators will not map the native space F into
itself.

Proof. Since y and (x L)u commute, equations (2.8) and (2.1) yield for all ,
F L

v
h | iF = x y (x L)u y L (u, v)
L

v
= ( L)u L (u, v) = h L | LiF .
Equation (2.9) follows immediately. Moreover, we see ( ) L F for
F L and span . Therefore PL , () is well-defined. Using equation (2.6), we
calculate
PL , () = inf k kF = inf k L LkF
span L span
= inf k L kF = P,L ( L).
span L
 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions 387

Inequality (2.11) is proved by

P,L ( L) = inf k L LkF 6 inf k kF kLk . 
span span

In the important example (1.7), using = x and = X , the benefit of this

theorem is to reduce the unknown power function P,X L (x L) according to the
basis function to the classical power function PL ,X (x ) of L .
Now we compare two different approximations. First, there is the one we have
been dealing with, namely:
y
su,X L, (x) = L (x, X) satisfying Lsu,X L, (X) = Lu(X)
is a recovery of u from its data X Lu. Here, is given via
y
Lx L (X, X) = Lu(X).
But on the other hand, we have the reconstruction of Lu with respect to L by
sLu,X ,L (x) = L (x, X) 0 satisfying sLu,X ,L (X) = Lu(X).
The corresponding interpolation system is
L (X, X) 0 = Lu(X).
Using the definition (2.8) of L , we find 0 = , and therefore we get the following
theorem:

Theorem 2.8. The identity

Lsu,X L, = sLu,X ,L (2.12)
holds for any u which allows the operation L.

To demonstrate the use of the theorems of this section, we give a typical appli-
cation. Regard and as given. The ordered subsets of should have the form
of (1.9), i.e., = X L with X := X finite. Then from theorem 2.5
and the Splitting Theorem 2.6, we get the error bound
 
(u su,,) 6 P, () ku su,,kF

6 min P, () min ku su, , kF (2.13)

=1,...,N =1,...,N

for any F . Taking := x L as test functionals at x , we can use the

Transformation Theorem 2.7 to treat the first factor: P, () = PL ,X (x ). Using
equation (2.11), they can also be bounded by P,X (x ) kL k , which is a multiple
of the classical power function. We use the Primal Transformation Theorem 3.5 below
and theorem 2.8 to rewrite the last factor of equation (2.13) in the form
ku su,X L , kF = kL u L su,X L , kFL = kL u sL u,X ,L kFL .
The right hand side is the classical approximation error of L u in FL .
388 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions

3. Applications of Fourier transforms

Subsequently, we assume the basis function not only to be feasible, but to be

translation invariant, i.e.,
(x, y) = (x z, y z) for all x, y and z Rd .
This condition is equivalent to the existence of a function 0 with

(x, y) = 0 (x y) for all x, y . (3.1)

Moreover, we assume 0 to be the inverse Fourier transform of some :
Z
1 d T
0 (x) = FT ()(x) := (2) () ei x d. (3.2)
Rd

Under certain circumstances one has to resort to the generalized distributional Fourier
transform, but we omit these technical details here. Further we will assume that is
nonnegative and positive almost everywhere. This ensures to be positive definite
with respect to x -functionals, cf. [2]. To take advantage of the representation of
by (3.1) and (3.2), we have to restrict the dual native space F to functionals
commuting with the Fourier transform. That means, we assume
 Z  Z 
iT x
F : x
() e d = ()sym () d (3.3)

for = and = sym , F arbitrary, where

Tx

sym () := x ei (3.4)

is called the symbol function of the functional . It may even be a generalized function,
defined by the equality in (3.3). In addition, we require any function f in F to have
a representation via the inverse Fourier transform:


for any f F there is a function fb such that f = FT1 fb . (3.5)

Where necessary, we assume fb = FT(f ), that is, the Fourier transform is bijective
on F . Apparently these are many assumptions, but we know several kinds of feasible
basis functions which allow our construction.

Remark 3.1. It is also common to define the symbol function by (ei x ), using
T

the negative sign Rin the exponent. If is a regular distribution, i.e., a functional of
the form l (g) = l()g() d with a representing function l, the so defined symbol
function coincides with the representer of the Fourier transform
Z

T

FT(l )(f ) := l FT(f ) = f (x)l ei x dx
 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions 389

of l by the use of Fubinis theorem. Therefore, this definition of the symbol function
b But we will not use this notation, because it requires to
justifies to denote it by .
be regular or to use generalized Fourier transforms.

Assuming (3.3), we calculate the scalar product

Z
d T
h | iF = (2)
x y
() ei (xy) d
Z Rd

= (2)d
T
()x ei x y eiT y d
ZR
d

= (2)d ()sym ()sym () d, (3.6)

Rd
and find
Z
 2
kk2F = (2) d
()sym () d. (3.7)

Rd
To prove the feasibility of a given (in particular the positive definiteness, which has
been stated in definition 2.1), it suffices to show that the integrand ()|sym ()|2 is
nonnegative and positive almost everywhere (cf. a classical result from [2]).

Theorem 3.2.
Equations (3.3) and (3.5) yield
Z
(f ) = (2) d
fb() sym () d (3.8)
Rd
for all F and f F .
If the linear operator L is translation invariant, i.e.,


Lx f (x z) = (Lf )(x z) (3.9)
for all z Rd and f in the domain of L, we have
Tx
symx L () = sym0 L () ei for all x, Rd . (3.10)

Proof. Only equation (3.10) requires a proof:

T

T


symx +z L () = Lx ei x (x0 + z) = Lx ei (x+z) (x0 ) using (3.9)
0
T T

T

T
= Lx ei x ei z (x0 ) = Lx ei x (x0 ) ei z
T
= symx () ei z .
0 L

Now we substitute x0 by 0 and z by x. 

We now want to represent native space norms via Fourier transforms.

390 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions

Lemma 3.3. Let F and F satisfy equations (3.3) and (3.5), respectively. Then for
every f F , the equation

fb() = () symf ()

is valid, where f F is the Riesz representer of the function f .

Proof. Due to the theorem of Riesz, for any given f F , there is a unique f F
satisfying (f ) = h | f iF for all F . Using equations (3.6) and (3.8), we
find
Z
1 b


d
FT f = (f ) = h | f iF = (2) ()sym ()symf () d
Rd



= FT1 symf

for every F . Thus FT1 (fb) = FT1 (symf ). 

Theorem 3.4. Let be a feasible basis function which has a representation via equa-
tions (3.1) and (3.2). Let F and F satisfy equations (3.3) and (3.5), respectively.
Then the equation
Z
hf | giF = (2)d fb()b
g ()/() d (3.11)
Rd

holds for every f , g F . Recall that can only vanish on a set of measure 0.

Equation (3.11) is the analog of equation (3.6) for the scalar product in F . More
about this representation is found in [20, section 4].

Proof. Due to lemma 3.3, we know symf () = fb()/() almost everywhere for
any given function f , where f F is the Riesz representer of f . We use its property
hg | f iF = hf | giF and equation (3.6) to calculate
Z
hf | giF = hg | f iF = (2)d symg ()symf () () d
Rd
Z
= (2)d
gb()fb()/() d. 
Rd

As we saw above, the symbol function is an essential tool for proving positive
definiteness of the basis functions and L . Moreover, we will use it to establish
a connection between the norms of their native spaces F and FL and between
their power functions, respectively. For this reason, we assume the operator L to
be translation invariant. Since is translation invariant, so is L , and a function
 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions 391

L,0 with L (x, y) = L,0 (x y) exists. If in addition there is a function L with

L,0 = FT1 (L ), we find with equation (3.3) for almost every x, y in Rd
Z Z
iT (xy) T


L () e d = () Lx ei x Ly eiT y d,

where
Tx
Tz

Lx ei := xz Lz ei = symx L ()
denotes the symbol function for functionals of the form = x L with a linear
operator L. Using equation (3.10), we calculate
T

 2 T
Lx ei x Ly ei y = sym0 L () ei (xy) .
T

Therefore, the functions L and are connected by

 2
L () = () sym0 L () for a.e. Rd . (3.12)

If |sym0 L ()|2 is positive almost everywhere like , so is L . Then L is positive

definite, and it is a feasible basis function. The following theorem is the analog of the
Transformation Theorem 2.7.

Theorem 3.5 (Primal Transformation Theorem). Let L be translation invariant and let
it commute with the Fourier transform integral for f F . Let and L be feasible
basis functions. Let F and F satisfy equations (3.3) and (3.5), respectively. Then
the connection between k kFL and k kF is

kf kF = kLf kFL for all f F . (3.13)

This equation is the dual of equation (2.9). For = X L we get the equation

infy ku skF = inf (Lu) s . (3.14)
y F
sspan X L (,y) L
sspan (,y)

The right-hand term is the classical approximation error of Lu. If F FL and

L : FL FL is bounded by kLkL < , we find, moreover,
infy ku skF 6 infy ku skFL kLkL . (3.15)
sspan (,y) sspan (,y)

Proof. With equations (3.8) and (3.10), we calculate for f F :

Z


d
fb() sym0 L () ei x d = FT1 fb sym0 L (x).
T
L(f )(x) = (2)
Rd

Equations (3.11) and (3.12) yield

Z
 
kf k2F = (2) d fb()2 /() d
Rd
392 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions
Z
 2
= (2)d fb() sym 
0 L () /L () d
Rd

2
= FT1 fb sym0 L F .
L

The combination of these results proves (3.13). To prove the second assertion, we
use (3.13) to calculate
infy ku skF = infy kLu LskFL
sspan (,y) sspan (,y)
= inf y
kLu s0 kFL
s0 span L (,y)
= inf
y
kLu skFL .
sspan X L (,y)

The last assertion follows from the first line of this equation. 

We give two simple, but typical examples for translation invariant linear opera-
tors L:

Example 3.6. Let L := p(D) be a partial differential operator with constant coeffi-
cients, i.e., p is a polynomial on i Rd and D := (/xj )j=1,...,d . Then we find
y
L (x, y) = p(D)x p(D) (x, y)
and
Tx
symx L () = p(i) ei (3.16)
for every x . With equation (3.7), this implies
Z
 
kx kF = kx LkF = (2)
2 2 d p(i)2 () d.
L
Rd

Example 3.7. Let

Z
L(f )(x) := K(x x0 )f (x0 ) dx0 = (K f )(x)
Rd
be an integral operator of convolution type. We calculate
Z Z
0
L (x, y) = K(x x ) K(y y 0 ) (x0 , y 0 ) dy 0 dx0
Rd Rd
and
Tx
symx L () = FT(K)() ei (3.17)
for every x . With equation (3.7), we get
Z
 
kx kF = (2)
2 d  FT(K)()2 () d.
L
Rd
 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions 393

Remark 3.8. The paper [6] shows a general technique to apply the above abstract
results to general problems involving partial differential equations. However, [6] does
not produce explicit convergence orders, and thus we add a section to demonstrate
how the technique works for elliptic boundary value problems.

4. Application to mixed linear problems

In the following example, we need the classical theory of partial differential

equations, which uses Sobolev spaces. There are two common versions of such spaces,
defined by
 Z 




d 0
 2

H R := S R
l d
:   2 l
FT()() 1 + kk2 d <
Rd
and

Wlp () := f Lp (): D f exists for all Nd0 , || 6 l .
Since we need domains with sufficiently smooth boundaries, for example, Lipschitz-
boundaries, [18, theorem 5.3 ] implies Wl2 ()
= Hl () for all l > 0. We shall use the
notation Hl (). (The sign
= denotes norm isomorphy.)
We treat the problem
L1 u := p(D)u = f1 on 1 ,
L2 u := K u = f2 on 2 , (4.1)
L3 u := u = f3 on 3 = 1 ,
as an example, where = 1 2 3 Rd is bounded, p is a polynomial of
order m and K L2 (Rd ). In addition, we want the polynomial p to have no zeros
in i Rd , for example p(x) = xT x + 1. We assume there is a solution u in the
Sobolev space H (Rd ). Moreover, we need u C m (Rd ), since the first condition
of (4.1) shall be satisfied pointwise. Due to the Sobolev imbedding theorems we have
to assume > m+d/2 to ensure H (Rd ) C m (Rd ), cf. [18, corollary 6.1]. To satisfy
equation (2.2), we need


L := span {x L1 }x1 {x L2 }x2 {x }x3 F .
We first have to choose a feasible basis function (x, y) which allows the appli-
cation and commutation of any pair of the above functionals with respect to x and y.
The following theorem shows that it is possible to choose with F = H (Rd ), where
6 . Since u H (R ), we then know u F . To ensure the above-mentioned
d

commutation property, it suffices to increase as needed.

Theorem 4.1. We assume to be Lipschitz continuous. If a function 0 L1 (Rd )

has a Fourier transform satisfying

2
2
c1 1 + kk2 6 () 6 c2 1 + kk2 for all Rd (4.2)
394 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions

with certain constants 0 < c1 6 c2 and 2 N, > 2, its corresponding function

(x, y) = 0 (x y) = FT1 ()(x y)

is a feasible basis function with respect to L := span{x }xRd . The native space F
is norm isomorphic to the Sobolev space H (Rd ), i.e., F = H (Rd ).

This is a re-formulation of [16, theorem 2.1], which is based on [20]. For

example, Wendlands compactly supported radial basis functions satisfy equation (4.2),
cf. [16, theorem 3.6].
Now, we examine the properties of FL1 . Due to example 3.6, we know that if
0 C 2m (Rd ) induces a feasible basis function with respect to L , then
y
L1 (x, y) = L1 x L1 (x, y) = L1 ,0 (x y)

is feasible with respect to x -functionals, too. Therefore, is feasible with respect to

x - and x L1 -functionals. With equations (3.12) and (3.16), we find

2  
 
c1 1 + kk2 p(i)2 6 L () 6 c2 1 + kk2 2 p(i)2
1

for L1 = FT(L1 ,0 ) and for all Rd . Since p is a polynomial of order m and does
not vanish anywhere, we get with new constants c2 > c1 > 0 the inequalities

2(m)
2(m)
c1 1 + kk2 6 L1 () 6 c2 1 + kk2 for all Rd , (4.3)

which imply FL1 = Hm (Rd ) by use of equation (4.2). We need L1 ,0 C 0 (Rd ),

therefore we have to assume > m + d/2.
Since K L2 (Rd ), we find L2 : F F to be bounded by the norm of K, i.e.,
kL2 k 6 kKkL2 (Rd ) . We can set FL2 : = F , but we have to obey equation (3.13),
which says kf kF = kL2 f kFL . This F may not be the maximal possible native
2
space of L2 , but we do not need the maximal space here.
We choose finite sets X , = 1, . . . , 3, of centers and construct su,,
according to equations (1.10) and (1.11). The centers are to be distributed nicely, i.e.,
there exists an h0 > 0 with

hX, := sup min

0
kx x0 k2 < h0 , (4.4)
x x X

and from (1.9) has to be linearly independent.

To proceed towards error bounds, we have to use the uniform ellipticity of the
partial differential operator. The following theorem requires m = 2, but there are
similar and slightly more complicated theorems for differential operators of higher
orders, cf. [18, theorems 12.12 and 13.1].
 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions 395

Theorem 4.2P(cf. [7, theorem 3.7]). Let the polynomial according to L1 have the
form p(x) = di,j=1 ai,j xi xj + bT x + c, where A := (ai,j )i,j=1,...,d , b and c 6 0 are real
valued and constant. The operator L1 shall be elliptic in the sense of A = AT and
xT x 6 xT Ax 6 M xT x
for every x Rd with constants M > > 0. The domain 1 shall be bounded. If
e C 2 (1 ) C 0 (1 ) and fe C 0 (1 ) satisfy L1 u
the functions u e = fe on 1 , then
    c  
sup ue(x) 6 sup u e(x) + sup fe(x) (4.5)
x1 x1 x1
holds, where the constant c depends only on diam and kbk2 /.

e := u su,, and fe := L1 (e
We apply this theorem to u u) to get
 
sup u(x) su,,(x)
x1
  c  
6 sup x (u su,,) + sup x L1 (u su,,). (4.6)
x3 x1

We can use the theorem, since > > m + d/2, u H (Rd ) and su,, F =
d
H (R ) implies u d 2 d e
e H (R ) C (R ) and f C (R ). Due to theorem 2.5, we
0 d

know
 
x (u su,,) 6 P, (x ) ku su,,kF for all x 3 ,
 
x L1 (u su,,) 6 P, (x L1 ) ku su,,kF for all x 1 , (4.7)
 
x L2 (u su,,) 6 P, (x L2 ) ku su,,kF for all x 2 .

Combining this with the Splitting Theorem 2.6, we find

 
x (u su,,) 6 P, (x ) ku su, , kF for all x 3 ,
  X3 X3
(4.8)
x L (u su,,) 6 P, L (x L ) ku su, L , kF
X X

for all x , = 1, 2. The first line allows the application of the classical theory
of interpolation with radial basis functions, while the second line still needs some
work. We use the Transformation Theorem 2.7 and see
P,X L (x L ) = PL ,X (x ) for all x , = 1, 2. (4.9)
The Primal Transformation Theorem 3.5 yields
ku su,X L , kF = kL u L su,X L , kFL

= kL u sL u,X ,L kFL for = 1, 2, (4.10)

where we know that its hypotheses (3.3) and (3.5) are satisfied, since u e H (Rd ).
The second equality is due to theorem 2.8. It contains the approximation error of L u
instead of us. Note that L u = f on .
396 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions

Let us collect our error bounds now. We found

 
u(x) su,,(x) 6 P, (x ) ku su, , kF (4.11)
X3 X3

for all x 3 from (4.8),

 
u(x) su,,(x) 6 sup P, (x ) ku su, , kF
X3 X3
x3
c
+ sup P , (x ) kf1 sf1 ,X1 ,L1 kFL (4.12)
x1 L1 X1 1

for all x 1 using (4.6), (4.8), (4.9) and (4.10), and finally we saw
 
L2 (u su,,)(x) 6 P, L (x L2 ) kf2 sf , , kF
X2 2 2 X2 L2 L
2

for all x 2 from (4.8), and (4.10). Applying equation (2.11), we can bound the
last item by
 
L2 (u su,,)(x) 6 P, (x )kL2 k kf2 sf , , kF (4.13)
X2 2 X2 L2 L
2

for all x 2 .
If = X , then a finer distribution X 0 X of centers implies a decrease of
P, (x ) by means of the Splitting Theorem 2.6. This effect shall be used now to
establish convergence orders in terms of powers of hX, . We recall theorem 5 of [20].
It says that for and satisfying condition (4.2) there exist constants h0 , C > 0 with
d/2
P,X (x) 6 ChX, (4.14)
for any distribution X of centers with hX, < h0 and any x .

Corollary 4.3. We recall FL2 : = F = H (Rd ) and FL1 = Hm (Rd ). We as-

sumed u H () with > > m + d/2. Below, C denotes a generic constant.
Using equation (4.11), we find
 
u(x) su,,(x) 6 Cku su, , kH (Rd ) hd/2
X3 X3 ,3

for all x 3 . From equation (4.12) and using f1 Hm (Rd ), we get

 
u(x) su,,(x)
d/2 c md/2
6 Cku su,X3 , kH (Rd ) hX3 ,3 + C kf1 sf1 ,X1 ,L1 kHm (Rd ) hX1 ,1

for all x 1 . Finally, we take equation (4.13) to calculate
 
L2 (u su,,)(x) 6 Ckf2 sf , , kH (Rd ) hd/2
2 X2 L2 X2 ,2

for all x 2 . Here, we assumed f2 H ().

Remark 4.4. The L -norm can be replaced by the L2 -norm to gain an additional factor
d/2
hX , cf. [17, theorem 5]. Since every sf ,X ,L is the result of a minimization,
 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions 397

the norms on the right hand side can be bounded by kukH (Rd ) , kf1 kHm (Rd ) and
kf2 kH (Rd ) , respectively.

5. Conclusion

The theory of finite element methods (FEM) yields the following bound of ap-
proximation error.

Theorem 5.1 (cf. [9, Satz 4.2]). Let the domain Rd have a polyhedral boundary
and a quasi-uniform decomposition T into finite elements, which are affine images of
a common reference element. Let the maximal diameter of all finite elements be 2h.
The order m of the given differential operator L shall be even. Let V be a
subspace of Hm/2 (). Partial integration is used to define the continuous and V -
elliptical bilinear form a(u, v) := hLu | viV on V V . Let f be a continuous linear
form on V . We assume there is a solution u V H() of the problem a(u, v) = f (v)
for all v V with the higher regularity = qFEM + 1 > m/2.
Let the span Vh V of basis and test functions contain the space of on T
piecewise polynomial functions of degree at most qFEM.
Then the conforming finite element problem a(uh , vh ) = f (vh ) for all vh Vh
has a unique solution uh which satisfies
ku uh kHm/2 () 6 C|u|H () hm/2 . (5.1)

Comparing the error bound (5.1) of the FEM with the error bounds of corollary 4.3
for collocation, we note several points:
The collocation method requires a very regular solution u H () with >
m + d/2. It constructs an approximation of smoothness order > m + d/2 and
approximation order md/2. The FEM needs only > m/2. Its approximating
function has smoothness order 1 > m/2 1 and approximation order m/2.
But our method yields an L -error bound, while FEM yields a Hm/2 one. There is
an additional hd/2 convergence factor, if our estimate is rewritten to an L2 -norm.
The additional regularity required by our method clearly limits its direct applicabil-
ity. However, current research along the directions of, e.g., [3] shows that there are
promising techniques to handle cases of low regularity in such a way that the core
solution method has to deal only with the regular part of the solution. Combined
with such techniques, the regularity requirements are much less serious.
Collocation as a meshless method needs no geometric information. Thus the main
impact of our approach will be towards high-dimensional problems with high reg-
ularity.
We recall that Wendlands functions produce sparse systems due to their compact
support. Therefore, the complexity of the collocation method can possibly be re-
duced to O(#centers), cf. [14]. However, the underlying theory is difficult and still
398 C. Franke, R. Schaback / Collocation using radial basis functions

incomplete. In this direction, multilevel techniques are currently under investiga-

tion, cf. [5,12].
The FEM can treat operators L which are not translation invariant. We expect that
the collocation method can be extended to such problems, too.
The smoothness of the boundary does not influence our method, except that we
need the existence of a solution of sufficiently high regularity.

Altogether we see: The collocation method is feasible for problems with very
regular solutions in high space dimensions or with many different operators. This
roughly complements the set of problems where the FEM has proven to be an extremely
effective tool.

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge help by P. Hahner, G. Lube and H. Wendland. This

work was supported by a grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

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