Written by internationally renowned mathematicians, this state-of-the-art textbook examines four research directions in harmonic analysis and features some of the latest applications in the field. The work is the first one that combines spline theory, wavelets, frames, and time-frequency methods leading up to a construction of wavelets on manifolds other than Rn.

Four Short Courses on Harmonic Analysis is intended as a graduate-level textbook for courses or seminars on harmonic analysis and its applications. The work is also an excellent reference or self-study guide for researchers and practitioners with diverse mathematical backgrounds working in different fields such as pure and applied mathematics, image and signal processing engineering, mathematical physics, and communication theory.

This textbook is intended to supplement the classical theory of uni- and multivariate splines and their approximation and interpolation properties with those of fractals, fractal functions, and fractal surfaces. This synthesis will complement currently required courses dealing with these topics and expose the prospective reader to some new and deep relationships. In addition to providing a classical introduction to the main issues involving approximation and interpolation with uni- and multivariate splines, cardinal and exponential splines, and their connection to wavelets and multiscale analysis, which comprises the first half of the book, the second half will describe fractals, fractal functions and fractal surfaces, and their properties. This also includes the new burgeoning theory of superfractals and superfractal functions. The theory of splines is well-established but the relationship to fractal functions is novel. Throughout the book, connections between these two apparently different areas will be exposed and presented. In this way, more options are given to the prospective reader who will encounter complex approximation and interpolation problems in real-world modeling. Numerous examples, figures, and exercises accompany the material.