On the computation of Gaussian quadrature rules for Chebyshev sets of linearly independent functions

We consider the computation of quadrature rules that are exact for a Chebyshev set of linearly independent functions on an interval $[a,b]$. A general theory of Chebyshev sets guarantees the existence of rules with a Gaussian property, in the sense that $2l$ basis functions can be integrated exactly with just $l$ points and weights. Moreover, all weights are positive and the points lie inside the interval $[a,b]$. However, the points are not the roots of an orthogonal polynomial or any other known special function as in the case of regular Gaussian quadrature. The rules are characterized by a nonlinear system of equations, and earlier numerical methods have mostly focused on finding suitable starting values for a Newton iteration to solve this system. In this paper we describe an alternative scheme that is robust and generally applicable for so-called complete Chebyshev sets. These are ordered Chebyshev sets where the first $k$ elements also form a Chebyshev set for each $k$. The points of the quadrature rule are computed one by one, increasing exactness of the rule in each step. Each step reduces to finding the unique root of a univariate and monotonic function. As such, the scheme of this paper is guaranteed to succeed. The quadrature rules are of interest for integrals with non-smooth integrands that are not well approximated by polynomials.

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