When is the Fourier transform of an elementary function elementary?

Pavel Etingof*, David Kazhdan, Alexander Polishchuk

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Let F be a local field, ψ a nontrivial unitary additive character of F, and V a finite dimensional vector space over F. Let us say that a complex function on V is elementary if it has the form g(x) = Cψ(Q(x)) ∏j=1k χj(Pj(x)), x ∈ V, where C ∈ ℂ, Q is a rational function (the phase function), Pj are polynomials, and χj multi-plicative characters of F. For generic Xj, this function canonically extends to a distribution on V (if char(F)=0). Occasionally, the Fourier transform of an elementary function is also an elementary function (the basic example is the Gaussian integral: k = 0, Q is a nondegenerate quadratic form). It is interesting to determine when exactly this happens. This question is the main subject of our study. In the first part of this paper we show that for F = ℝ or ℂ, if the Fourier transform of an elementary function g ≠ 0 with phase function -Q such that det d2Q ≠ 0 is another elementary function g* with phase function Q*, then Q* is the Legendre transform of Q (the "semiclassical condition"). We study properties and examples of phase functions satisfying this condition, and give a classification of phase functions such that both Q and Q* are of the form f(x)/t, where f is a homogeneous cubic polynomial and t is an additional variable (this is one of the simplest possible situations). Unexpectedly, the proof uses Zak's classification theorem for Severi varieties. In the second part of the paper we give a necessary and sufficient condition for an elementary function to have an elementary Fourier transform (in an appropriate "weak" sense) and explicit formulas for such Fourier transforms in the case when Q and Pj are monomials, over any local field F. We also describe a generalization of these results to the case of monomials of norms of finite extensions of F. Finally, we generalize some of the above results (including Fourier integration formulas) to the case when F = ℂ and Q comes from a prehomogeneous vector space.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)27-66
Number of pages40
JournalSelecta Mathematica, New Series
Volume8
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Covering system
  • Fourier transform
  • Local field
  • Stationary phase
  • Γ-function

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