Analytical formulas for polynomial coefficients in radial basis function interpolation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/mma.2026.22788

Abstract

Radial basis functions (RBF) are used in many areas, including interpolation and approximation, solution of partial differential equations, neural networks, and machine learning. RBFs are based on the sum of weighted kernel functions. Additional orthogonal polynomials are added for robustness, numerical stability, and computational efficiency improvement.
This contribution gives a new analytical formula specifying values of the polynomial coefficients used in RBF interpolation. The zerodegree polynomial coefficient is related to the sigmoid function used in RBF-neural networks (RBF-NN).
Unlike prior works where polynomial augmentation is only used to guarantee solvability, this paper provides explicit closed-form formulae for polynomial coefficients (with special focus on the zerodegree case). This new analytical treatment clarifies their role as global bias terms in both interpolation and RBF neural networks. Expected applicability is in data interpolation and approximation, RBF-neural networks, scientific computing and PDE solutions, geostatistics & spatial interpolation, machine learning, and data fitting and signal processing.

Keywords:

Radial basis functions, RBF, meshless methods, RBF interpolation, polynomial, RBF neural networks, RBF-NN, invariance, scattered spatio-temporal data

How to Cite

Skala, V. (2026). Analytical formulas for polynomial coefficients in radial basis function interpolation. Mathematical Modelling and Analysis, 31(1), 130–148. https://doi.org/10.3846/mma.2026.22788

Share

Published in Issue
January 21, 2026
Abstract Views
68

References

M.E. Biancolini. Fast Radial Basis Functions for Engineering Applications. Springer, first edition, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75011-8

M.D. Buhmann. On quasi-interpolation with radial basis functions. Journal of Approximation Theory, 72(1):103–130, 1993. https://doi.org/10.1006/jath.1993.1009

R. Cavoretto. Optimizing the shape parameter in rational RBF partition of unity interpolation. Applied Mathematics Letters, 173, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aml.2025.109766

R. Cavoretto, S. De Marchi, A. De Rossi, E. Perracchione and G. Santin. Partition of unity interpolation using stable kernelbased techniques. Applied Numerical Mathematics, 116:95–107, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnum.2016.07.005

M. Cervenka and V. Skala. Conditionality analysis of the radial basis function matrix. LNCS, 12250 LNCS:30–43, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58802-1_3

G.E. Fasshauer. Meshfree Approximation Methods with Matlab. World Scientific, first edition, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1142/6437

M.S. Floater and A. Iske. Multistep scattered data interpolation using compactly supported radial basis functions. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 73(1-2):65–78, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-0427(96)00035-0

N. Flyer, B. Fornberg, V. Bayona and G.A. Barnett. On the role of polynomials in RBF-FD approximations: I. interpolation and accuracy. Journal of Computational Physics, 321:21–38, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2016.05.026

B. Fornberg and G. Wright. Stable computation of multiquadric interpolants for all values of the shape parameter. Computers and Mathematics with Applications, 48(5-6):853–867, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.camwa.2003.08.010

R. Franke. A critical comparison of some methods for interpolation of scattered data. Technical report, Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA, 1979. Available on Internet: https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA081688.pdf

R.L. Hardy. Theory and applications of the multiquadric-biharmonic method 20 years of discovery 1968-1988. Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 19(8-9):163–208, 1990. https://doi.org/10.1016/0898-1221(90)90272-L

E.J. Kansa, R.C. Aldredge and L. Ling. Numerical simulation of two-dimensional combustion using mesh-free methods. Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, 33(7):940––950, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enganabound.2009.02.008

E. Larsson and R. Schaback. Scaling of radial basis functions. IMA Journal of Numerical Analysis, 44(2):1130–1152, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/imanum/drad035

Z. Majdisova and V. Skala. Big geo data surface approximation using radial basis functions: A comparative study. Computers and Geosciences, 109:51–58, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2017.08.007

Z. Majdisova and V. Skala. Radial basis function approximations: comparison and applications. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 51:728–743, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apm.2017.07.033

F.C.M. Menandro. Two new classes of compactly supported radial basis functions for approximation of discrete and continuous data. Engineering Reports, 2019:1–30, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1002/eng2.12028

Ch.A. Micchelli. Interpolation of scattered data: distance matrices and conditionally positive definite functions. Constructive Approximation, 2(1):11–22, 1986. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01893414

A. Noorizadegan, D. Chen, Ch.S. Shan, R. Cavoretto and A. De Rossi. Efficient truncated randomized SVD for mesh-free kernel methods. Computers and Mathematics with Applications, 164:12–20, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.camwa.2024.03.021

S.A. Sarra and D. Sturgill. A random variable shape parameter strategy for radial basis function approximation methods. Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, 33(11):1239–1245, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enganabound.2009.07.003

R. Schaback. Optimal geometric Hermite interpolation of curves, mathematical methods for curves and surfaces. ii. Innov. Appl. Math, pp. 417–428, 1998. Available on Internet: http://num.math.uni-goettingen.de/schaback/research/papers/OGHIoC.pdf

F. Schwenker, H.A. Kestler and G. Palm. Three learning phases for radial-basis-function networks. Neural Networks, 14(4-5):439–458, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0893-6080(01)00027-2

V. Skala. RBF interpolation with CSRBF of large data sets. In ICCS 2017, Proceedia Computer Science, volume 108, pp. 2433–2437. Elsevier, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.05.081

M. Smolik and V. Skala. Large scattered data interpolation with radial basis functions and space subdivision. Integrated Computer Aided Engineering, 25:49– 62, 2018. https://doi.org/10.3233/ICA-170556

H. Wendland. Piecewise polynomial, positive definite and compactly supported radial functions of minimal degree. Advances in computational Mathematics, 4(1):389–396, 1995. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02123482

H. Wendland. Scattered data approximation, volume 17. Cambridge University Press, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617539

Z. Wu. Compactly supported positive definite radial functions. Advances in computational mathematics, 4(1):283–292, 1995. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03177517

View article in other formats

CrossMark check

CrossMark logo

Published

2026-01-21

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Skala, V. (2026). Analytical formulas for polynomial coefficients in radial basis function interpolation. Mathematical Modelling and Analysis, 31(1), 130–148. https://doi.org/10.3846/mma.2026.22788

Share