Eulerian numbers: A spline perspective

In this paper, the spline interpretations of Eulerian numbers and refined Eulerian numbers are presented. Many classical results about Eulerian numbers can follow from the properties of B-splines directly, and some new results about the refined Eulerian numbers and descent polynomials are also derived. Specifically, the explicit and recurrence formulas for the refined Eulerian numbers and descent polynomials are obtained. This paper also provides a new approach to study Eulerian numbers.