Metric entropy, n-widths, and sampling of functions on manifolds

Abstract

We first investigate on the asymptotics of the Kolmogorov metric entropy and nonlinear n-widths of approximation spaces on some function classes on manifolds and quasi-metric measure spaces. Secondly, we develop constructive algorithms to represent those functions within a prescribed accuracy. The constructions can be based on either spectral information or scattered samples of the target function. Our algorithmic scheme is asymptotically optimal in the sense of nonlinear n-widths and asymptotically optimal up to a logarithmic factor with respect to the metric entropy.