On the positivity of B-spline Wronskians

Abstract A proof that Wronskians of non-zero B-splines are positive is given, using only recursive formulas for B-splines and their derivatives. This could be used to generalize the de Boor–DeVore geometric proof of the Schoenberg–Whitney conditions and total positivity of B-splines to Hermite interpolation. For Wronskians of maximal order with respect to a given degree, positivity follows from a simple formula.