Rational approximation of holomorphic semigroups revisited

Using a recently developed $\mathcal H$-calculus we propose a unified approach to the study of rational approximations of holomorphic semigroups on Banach spaces. We provide unified and simple proofs to a number of basic results on semigroup approximations and substantially improve some of them. We show that many of our estimates are essentially optimal, thus complementing the existing literature.