An Explicit Upper Bound for Modulus of Divided Difference on a Jordan Arc in the Complex Plane

Abstract: An explicit upper bound is derived for the modulus of divided difference for a smooth(not necessarily analytic) function defined on a smooth Jordan arc (or a smooth Jordan curve) in the complex plane. As an immediate application, an error estimate for complex polynomial interpolation on a Jordan arc (or a Jordan curve) is given, which extends the well-known error estimate for polynomial interpolation on the unit interval. Moreover, this upper bound is independent of the parametrization of the curve.