Error Localization of Best L1 Polynomial Approximants

An important observation in compressed sensing is that the $\ell_0$ minimizer of an underdetermined linear system is equal to the $\ell_1$ minimizer when there exists a sparse solution vector and a certain restricted isometry property holds. Here, we develop a continuous analogue of this observation and show that the best $L_0$ and $L_1$ polynomial approximants of a polynomial that is corrupted on a set of small measure are nearly equal. We go on to demonstrate an error localization property of best $L_1$ polynomial approximants and use our observations to develop an improved algorithm for computing best $L_1$ polynomial approximants to continuous functions.