Counting via entropy: new preasymptotics for the approximation numbers of Sobolev embeddings

In this paper, we reveal a new connection between approximation numbers of periodic Sobolev type spaces, where the smoothness weights on the Fourier coefficients are induced by a (quasi-)norm $\|\cdot\|$ on $\mathbb{R}^d$, and entropy numbers of the embedding $\textrm{id}: \ell_{\|\cdot\|}^d \to \ell_\infty^d$. This connection yields preasymptotic error bounds for approximation numbers of isotropic Sobolev spaces, spaces of analytic functions, and spaces of Gevrey type in $L_2$ and $H^1$, which find application in the context of Galerkin methods. Moreover, we observe that approximation numbers of certain Gevrey type spaces behave preasymptotically almost identical to approximation numbers of spaces of dominating mixed smoothness. This observation can be exploited, for instance, for Galerkin schemes for the electronic Schrödinger equation, where mixed regularity is present.