Improving the convergence analysis of linear subdivision schemes

This work presents several new results concerning the analysis of the convergence of binary, univariate, and linear subdivision schemes, all related to the {\it contractivity factor} of a convergent scheme. First, we prove that a convergent scheme cannot have a contractivity factor lower than half. Since the lower this factor is, the faster is the convergence of the scheme, schemes with contractivity factor $\frac{1}{2}$, such as those generating spline functions, have optimal convergence rate. Additionally, we provide further insights and conditions for the convergence of linear schemes and demonstrate their applicability in an improved algorithm for determining the convergence of such subdivision schemes.