Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2009
Additional convergence results are given for the approximate solution in the space L2(a, b) of Fredholm integral equations of the second kind, y = f + Ky, by the degenerate-kernel methods of Sloan, Burn and Datyner. Convergence to the exact solution is provided for a class of these methods (including ‘method 2’), under suitable conditions on the kernel K, and error bounds are obtained. In every case the convergence is faster than that of the best approximate solution of the form yn = Σnan1u1, where u1, …, un are the appropriate functions used in the rank-n degenerate-kernel approximation. In addition, the error for method 2 is shown to be relatively unaffected if the integral equation has an eigenvalue near 1.