Weil Multipliers

Abstract

This paper studies a class of linear operators on spaces of functions of one real variable, which correspond to multiplication by a measurable function under the Weil transform $\Theta.$ These operators are called Weil multipliers, and arise out of the authors' study of Gabor series and radar ambiguity functions. Representation theory provides a natural class of Weil multipliers: the set of doubly periodic functions with absolutely convergent Fourier series, ${\bf A}({\bf T}^2).$ It will be proved that functions in ${\bf A}({\bf T}^2)$ are $L^p$ multipliers for all $1 \leq p \leq 2$ and, therefore, define bounded linear endomorphisms of ${\bf L}^p({\bf R}).$ Also, we record the fact that the Wiener lemma tells us something about the orbit structure of these multipliers acting on function spaces on the Heisenberg nilmanifold. Linear maps that correspond to multiplication by a function under a unitary conjugacy have a particularly simple spectral decomposition, which yields an approximation theory for these operators and provides insight into the foundation of the authors' previous work on approximate orthonormal bases. Finally, the problem of inversion of a multiplier will be analyzed for smooth functions that have a specified structure near their zeros.