Topics in Euclidean Fourier Analysis

Abstract

This chapter takes up several independent topics in Euclidean Fourier analysis, all having some bearing on the subject of partial differential equations.

Section 1 elaborates on the relationship between the Fourier transform and the Schwartz space, the subspace of L¹(ℝ^N) consisting of smooth functions with the property that the product of any iterated partial derivative of the function with any polynomial is bounded. It is possible to make the Schwartz space into a metric space, and then one can consider the space of continuous linear functionals; these continuous linear functionals are called “tempered distributions.” The Fourier transform carries the space of tempered distributions in one-one fashion onto itself.

Section 2 concerns weak derivatives, and the main result is Sobolev’s Theorem, which tells how to recover information about ordinary derivatives from information about weak derivatives. Weak derivatives are easy to manipulate, and Sobolev’s Theorem is therefore a helpful tool for handling derivatives without continually having to check the validity of interchanges of limits.

Sections 3–4 concern harmonic functions, those functions on open sets in Euclidean space that are annihilated by the Laplacian. The main results of Section 3 are a characterization of harmonic functions in terms of a mean-value property, a reflection principle that allows the extension to all of Euclidean space of any harmonic function in a half space that vanishes at the boundary, and a result of Liouville that the only bounded harmonic functions in all of Euclidean space are the constants. The main result of Section 4 is a converse to properties of Poisson integrals for half spaces, showing that harmonic functions in a half space are given as Poisson integrals of functions or of finite complex measures if their L^p norms over translates of the bounding Euclidean space are bounded.

Sections 5–6 concern the Calderón-Zygmund Theorem, a far-reaching generalization of the theorem concerning the boundedness of the Hilbert transform. Section 5 gives the statement and proof, and two applications are the subject of Section 6. One of the applications is to Riesz transforms, and the other is to the Beltrami equation, whose solutions are “quasiconformal mappings.”

Sections 7–8 concern multiple Fourier series for smooth periodic functions. The theory is established in Section 7, and an application to traces of integral operators is given in Section 8.