Optimal Quadrature Formulas for Curvilinear Integrals of the First Kind

Abstract

We consider the problem on optimal quadrature formulas for curvilinear integrals of the first kind that are exact for constant functions. This problem is reduced to the minimization problem for a quadratic form in many variables whose matrix is symmetric and positive definite. We prove that the objective quadratic function attains its minimum at a single point of the corresponding multi-dimensional space. Hence, for a prescribed set of nodes, there exists a unique optimal quadrature formula over a closed smooth contour, i.e., a formula with the least possible norm of the error functional in the conjugate space. We show that the tuple of weights of the optimal quadrature formula is a solution of a special nondegenerate system of linear algebraic equations.