Mixed-normalization spline Gram matrix ($G=D^{-1}H$)

For partition-normalized B-splines $N_i$ and integral-normalized $M_i=k{N}_i/(t_{i+k}-t_i)$, let $H_{ij}=(N_i,N_j)$ and $D_{ii}=(t_{i+k}-t_i)/k$. The mixed matrix $G_{ij}=(M_i,N_j)$ equals $D^{-1}H$. It is invertible whenever the splines form a basis and their support widths are positive. It need not be symmetric, unlike the ordinary Gram matrix.

Let nonnegative partition-normalized B-splines $N_i$ form a basis, with ${\sum }_i{N}_i\le 1$ on the integration interval and $d_i=\int N_i>0$. The row-normalized mixed Gram matrix is $G_{ij}=\int N_i{N}_j/d_i$. The normal equations for the orthogonal projection onto their linear span become $Ga=b$, with $b_i=\int f{N}_i/d_i$ and $\Vert b{\Vert }_{{\ell }^{\infty }}\le \Vert f{\Vert }_{\infty }$. The subpartition of unity for B-splines gives $\Vert {\sum }_i{a}_i{N}_i{\Vert }_{\infty }\le \Vert a{\Vert }_{{\ell }^{\infty }}$ and proves the bound. The ordinary symmetric Gram matrix omits this essential row normalization. The projection maps continuous functions into the spline space, not onto all continuous functions.

For the distinct-knot linear B-spline hats, let $h_i=t_{i+1}-t_i>0$. The mixed-normalization spline Gram matrix has entriesOnly indices in the finite basis are retained. This matrix has a row strict diagonal dominance margin at least $1/3$, so the inverse infinity-norm bound from diagonal dominance gives $\Vert G^{-1}{\Vert }_{{\ell }^{\infty }}\le 3$. Equidistant spline knots give off-diagonal entries $1/6$. Both pieces of every hat are retained; repeated endpoint spline knots require different boundary formulas.