Total positivity and the existence of piecewise exponential B-splines

Abstract We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the total positivity of certain connection matrices arising in piecewise exponential spline spaces. These total positivity conditions are sufficient for existence of B-splines in such spaces, but they are far from being necessary. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for existence of B-splines in the case of piecewise exponential spline spaces with only two differential operators, which eventually leads to a necessary condition for any piecewise exponential spline spaces.