Splines are piecewise continuous functions very popular in numerical approximation and computer aided design \cite{deboor2001_book,Dierckx1995_book}. An example of a spline is broken line interpolation. Typically polynomial splines are used, and the first (and often second) derivatives of the polynomial pieces are required to match at the knots. The knots of the splines are usually the abscissae of the input data, although this condition is not always required (e.g., splines with free knots \cite{Jupp_1978,Dierckx1995_book,Beliakov2003_amc}).
Polynomial splines are often represented in the B-spline basis, in which case their coefficients are computed from the input data by solving a banded system of linear equations \cite{Lyche1973, Dierckx1995_book, deboor2001_book}. Tridiagonal systems arise in cubic spline interpolation, while pentadiagonal systems arise in cubic spline smoothing \cite{Lyche1973}. Spline possess important extremal properties \cite{Holladay1957,Lyche1973}, in particular splines of degree $2m-1$ are the most ``smooth" functions that interpolate (or approximate, in the least squares sense) the data. The smoothness term is Tihkonov regularisation functional, the $L_2$ norm of the $m$-th derivative of the interpolant \cite{Lyche1973}.
Splines are piecewise continuous functions very popular in numerical approximation and computer aided design \cite{deboor2001_book,Dierckx1995_book}. An example of a spline is broken line interpolation. Typically polynomial splines are used, and the first (and often second) derivatives of the polynomial pieces are required to match at the knots. The knots of the splines are usually the abscissae of the input data, although this condition is not always required (e.g., splines with free knots \cite{Jupp_1978,Dierckx1995_book,Beliakov2003_amc}).
Polynomial splines are often represented in the B-spline basis, in which case their coefficients are computed from the input data by solving a banded system of linear equations \cite{Lyche1973, Dierckx1995_book, deboor2001_book}. Tridiagonal systems arise in cubic spline interpolation, while pentadiagonal systems arise in cubic spline smoothing \cite{Lyche1973}. Spline possess important extremal properties \cite{Holladay1957,Lyche1973}, in particular splines of degree $2m-1$ are the most ``smooth" functions that interpolate (or approximate, in the least squares sense) the data. The smoothness term is Tihkonov regularisation functional, the $L_2$ norm of the $m$-th derivative of the interpolant \cite{Lyche1973}.