Almost diagonal matrices and Besov-type spaces based on wavelet expansions

This paper is concerned with problems in the context of the theoretical foundation of adaptive (wavelet) algorithms for the numerical treatment of operator equations. It is well-known that the analysis of such schemes naturally leads to function spaces of Besov type. But, especially when dealing with equations on non-smooth manifolds, the definition of these spaces is not straightforward. Nevertheless, motivated by applications, recently Besov-type spaces $B^\alpha_{\Psi,q}(L_p(\Gamma))$ on certain two-dimensional, patchwise smooth surfaces were defined and employed successfully. In the present paper, we extend this definition (based on wavelet expansions) to a quite general class of $d$-dimensional manifolds and investigate some analytical properties (such as, e.g., embeddings and best $n$-term approximation rates) of the resulting quasi-Banach spaces. In particular, we prove that different prominent constructions of biorthogonal wavelet systems $\Psi$ on domains or manifolds $\Gamma$ which admit a decomposition into smooth patches actually generate the same Besov-type function spaces $B^\alpha_{\Psi,q}(L_p(\Gamma))$, provided that their univariate ingredients possess a sufficiently large order of cancellation and regularity (compared to the smoothness parameter $\alpha$ of the space). For this purpose, a theory of almost diagonal matrices on related sequence spaces $b^\alpha_{p,q}(\nabla)$ of Besov type is developed. Keywords: Besov spaces, wavelets, localization, sequence spaces, adaptive methods, non-linear approximation, manifolds, domain decomposition.