Generalized local polynomial reproductions

We present a general framework, treating Lipschitz domains in Riemannian manifolds, that provides conditions guaranteeing the existence of norming sets and generalized local polynomial reproduction - a powerful tool used in the analysis of various mesh-free methods and a mesh-free method in its own right. As a key application, we prove the existence of smooth local polynomial reproductions on compact subsets of algebraic manifolds in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with Lipschitz boundary. These results are then applied to derive new findings on the existence, stability, regularity, locality, and approximation properties of shape functions for a coordinate-free moving least squares approximation method on algebraic manifolds, which operates directly on point clouds without requiring tangent plane approximations.