AbstractEarlier, the authors attempted an explicit evaluation of the total variation of best piecewise polynomial approximations and obtained a result [9]. However, there, the discussion was on polynomials and cannot be applied to other families of functions. Thus, the present paper considers a similar discussion with respect to the trigonometric functions, that is, the Fourier series expansion. Specifically, the total variation of Fourier series approximations is investigated, and, in addition, the norms of Fourier coefficients are evaluated. For the norms of Fourier coefficients, we confirm that they converge to zero when the degree m → ∞ and its rate is O(m−1) (Riemann‐Lebesgue lemma). Conventionally, the norm of Fourier coefficients had been evaluated mostly by assuming the periodicity of functions to be approximated. However, in this paper, we evaluate the norm without using the periodicity condition of the approximated functions. Moreover, it is shown that the upper bound of the ratio between the total variations of K‐th partial sum of Fourier series and that of the function to be approximated, is proportional to K. This implies that compared to the evaluation of total variation of the best piecewise polynomial approximations obtained in the authors' previous paper, this evaluation excels it by far.
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