Buhmann covariance functions, their compact supports, and their smoothness

Abstract: We consider the Buhmann class of compactly supported radial basis functions, whih includes a wealth of special cases that have been studied in both numerical analysis and spatial statistics literatures. In particular, the celebrated Wu, Wendland and Missing Wendland functions are notable special cases of this class. We propose a very simple difference operator and show the conditions for which the application of it to Buhmann functions preserves positive definiteness on $m$-dimensional Euclidean spaces. We also show that the application of the difference operator increases smoothness at the origin, whilst keeping positive definiteness in the same $m$-dimensional Euclidean space, as well as compact support. Thus, our operator is a competitor of the celebrated Mont{\'e}e operator, which allows to increase the smoothness at the origin, at the expense of losing positive definiteness in the space where the radial basis function is originally defined. The proofs of our results highlight surprising connections with past literatures on celebrated class of functions. Amongst them, absolute and completely monotone functions.