Claude Brezinski

Michela Redivo-Zaglia

This book paints a fresco of the field of extrapolation and rational approximation over the last several centuries to the present through the works of their primary contributors. It can serve as an introduction to the topics covered, including extrapolation methods, Padé approximation, orthogonal polynomials, continued fractions, Lanczos-type methods etc.; it also provides in depth discussion of the many links between these subjects. A highlight of this book is the presentation of the human side of the fields discussed via personal testimonies from contemporary researchers, their anecdotes, and their exclusive remembrances of some of the “actors.” This book shows how research in this domain started and evolved. Biographies of other scholars encountered have also been included. An important branch of mathematics is described in its historical context, opening the way to new developments. After a mathematical introduction, the book contains a precise description of the mathematical landscape of these fields spanning from the 19th century to the first part of the 20th. After an analysis of the works produced after that period (in particular those of Richardson, Aitken, Shanks, Wynn, and others), the most recent developments and applications are reviewed.

The Works of the Main Contributors

Extrapolation and Rational Approximation

William F. Ames

Numerical and Applied Mathematics

The history of continued fractions is certainly one of the longest among those of mathematical concepts, since it begins with Euclid's algorithm for the great est common divisor at least three centuries B.C. As it is often the case and like Monsieur Jourdain in Moliere's "Ie bourgeois gentilhomme" (who was speak ing in prose though he did not know he was doing so), continued fractions were used for many centuries before their real discovery. The history of continued fractions and Pade approximants is also quite im portant, since they played a leading role in the development of some branches of mathematics. For example, they were the basis for the proof of the tran scendence of 11' in 1882, an open problem for more than two thousand years, and also for our modern spectral theory of operators. Actually they still are of great interest in many fields of pure and applied mathematics and in numerical analysis, where they provide computer approximations to special functions and are connected to some convergence acceleration methods. Con tinued fractions are also used in number theory, computer science, automata, electronics, etc ...

History of Continued Fractions and Padé Approximants

Padeacute; approximants and continued fractions are typical examples of old areas of mathematics (continued fractions can be traced back to Euclid's g.c.d. algorithm more than 2000 years ago) which are again very much alive. This is due to their numerous applications in number theory, cryptography, statistics, numerical analysis, special functions, digital filtering, signal processing, fractals, fluid mechanics, theoretical physics, chemistry, engineering etc. This renewal of interest is also due to their intimate connection with other important topics such as orthogonal polynomials (another old subject now again in full vitality), rational approximation, Gaussian quadratures, extrapolation and convergence acceleration methods, differential equations etc.

Claude Brezinski

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