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Let $f(x) = 1 / \lvert x \rvert^2$, $x\in \mathbb{R}^3$, $\lvert x\rvert = \sqrt{x_1^2 + x_2^2 + x_3^2}$.

Let $F(f)$ denote the Fourier transform of $f$. Assume that $F(f)$ is an $L^1_{loc}$ function so it defines a distribution. By using scaling ( composing with $3x3$ matrices) prove that for some constant $C$:

$$ F(f) (y) = C \frac{1}{\lvert y\rvert}. $$

My attempt: I've proven that $f$ indeed defines a tempered distribution so it makes sense to look at $F(f)$ but I'm really not sure how to proceed on this without computing it directly, which obviously isn't the inteded solution and I'm also not sure how to do it. I tried proving it by testing it on functinos from $S$ but it hasn't yielded anything useful. I proved what $F(f A)$ is for $u\in S$ and a matrix $A$, but I'm not sure how to use that information.

EDIT: I've also proven that $f$ is radial and $F(f)$ radial.

Collapse
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  • @NinadMunshi First off, homogenous is then defined only for $a>0$ because it doesn't hold for negatives. Also, if f is homogenous of degree -1/2, how am I supposed to prove that the only such function is the one you gave $C*\lvert x\rvert^{-1/2}$? – Collapse Jul 02 '20 at 15:23
  • are you sure $f$ defines a tempered distribution? Check it's evaluation of a bump function centered at the origin, I don't think that's finite... I could be mistaken though – Nick Castillo Jul 02 '20 at 15:26
  • @guy3141 the problem I was solving before this one stated that it was a tempered distribution and I'm pretty sure I managed to prove it. – Collapse Jul 02 '20 at 15:27
  • hmm, the issue I see is that it's not in $L^1_{loc}$, maybe there's another way to define it as a distribution other than integrating it against Schwartz functions... – Nick Castillo Jul 02 '20 at 15:29
  • @guy3141 Hm the problem stated that it is a tempered distribution and that it is in $L^1_{loc}$ so unless the problem is flawed.. – Collapse Jul 02 '20 at 15:30
  • it's definitely not $L^1_{loc}$ take any compact neighborhood of the origin and integrate over that region, not bounded – Nick Castillo Jul 02 '20 at 15:31
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    @guy3141 https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1422117/1-x-alpha-is-integrable-on-the-unit-ball-in-mathbb-rn-iff-alpha-n – Collapse Jul 02 '20 at 15:33
  • sorry, you're right – Nick Castillo Jul 02 '20 at 15:35
  • You're supposed to use the property for your own numbers. In this case your function is homogeneous degree $-2$. $-3+2 = -1$ – Ninad Munshi Jul 02 '20 at 15:54
  • @NinadMunshi I know that, but I don't see how I would apply it correctly. How do I know that $C*1/\lvert x\rvert$ is the only such function? – Collapse Jul 02 '20 at 15:57
  • Because that is what the property says, read the lemma more carefully and pay attention to the hypothesis and result criteria. You're free to prove it on your own for the case of tempered distributions as opposed to Schwartz functions like I did. – Ninad Munshi Jul 02 '20 at 15:58
  • @NinadMunshi You claim that "The only possible homogeneous function with that degree would be $C|ξ|^{−1/2}$ for some constant C" which is a statement I honestly don't know how to prove.. Why not some other random function? – Collapse Jul 02 '20 at 16:00
  • Ah because it is radial too. That is another property, FT of radial functions is also radial. – Ninad Munshi Jul 02 '20 at 16:01
  • If a function $f$ is radial, i.e. invariant under rotation, then for any rotation $R$ $$ \hat{f}(R\xi) = \int f(x) , e^{-i(R\xi)\cdot x} dx = \int f(x) , e^{-i\xi\cdot R^{-1}x} dx = { x=Ry } \ = \int f(Ry) , e^{-i\xi\cdot y} dy = \int f(y) , e^{-i\xi\cdot y} dy = \hat{f}(\xi), $$ i.e. also the Fourier transform $\hat{f}$ is radial. – md2perpe Jul 02 '20 at 16:12
  • @md2perpe I managed to prove that also, but I'm not sure how to use that in my problem? – Collapse Jul 02 '20 at 16:14

2 Answers2

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So first $|x|^{-a}$ is in $L^1_{\mathrm{loc}}(\mathbb{R}^d)$ as soon as $a < d$ since by a radial change of variable $$ \int_{|x|<1} \frac{\mathrm{d}x}{|x|^a} = \omega_d\int_0^1 r^{d-1-a} \mathrm{d}r = \frac{\omega_d}{d-a} < \infty $$ where $\omega_d = \frac{2\pi^{d/2}}{\Gamma(d/2)}$ is the size of the unit sphere in $\mathbb{R}^d$. In particular, if $d=3$, $|x|^{-a}$ is a tempered distribution as soon as $a<3$.

Now, to get the form of the Fourier transform, just remark that since $f(x) = \frac{1}{|x|}$ is radial, its Fourier transform $\mathcal{F}(f)=\hat{f}$ is also radial. Moreover, for any $\lambda \in\mathbb{R}$ and $y\in\mathbb{R}^3$ $$ \hat{f}(\lambda\,y) = \frac{1}{|\lambda|^d}\mathcal{F}_x\left(f(x/\lambda)\right)(y) = \frac{1}{|\lambda|^d}\mathcal{F}_x\left(\frac{|\lambda|}{|x|}\right)(y) = \frac{1}{|\lambda|^{d-1}}\mathcal{F}_x\left(\frac{1}{|x|}\right)(y) = \frac{1}{|\lambda|^{d-1}}\hat{f}(y) $$ In particular, taking $λ = |z|$ and $y = \frac{z}{|z|}$, one gets for $z≠0$ $$ \hat{f}(z)= \frac{1}{|z|^{d-1}}\hat{f}(\tfrac{z}{|z|}), $$ and actually, the equality also holds as tempered distributions since this is the unique tempered distribution with this homogeneity. Since $\hat{f}$ is radial, $\hat{f}(\tfrac{z}{|z|}) = \hat{f}(e_1) = C$ is a constant. Therefore $$ \hat{f}(z)= \frac{C}{|z|^{d-1}} $$


Remark: one can get the constant by expressing $|x|^{-a}$ as an integral of Gaussian functions and using the known expression of the Fourier transform of a Gaussian. One can find this constant in the book Functional Analysis by Lieb and Loss for example.

With the convention $\mathcal{F}(f)(y) = \int_{\mathbb{R}^d} e^{-2iπx·y}\,f(x)\,\mathrm{d}x$, one gets for $a\in(0,d)$ $$ \mathcal{F}\left(\frac{1}{\omega_a|x|^a}\right) = \frac{1}{\omega_{d-a}|x|^{d-a}} $$ In the case when $a=d$, one gets $\mathcal{F}\left(\frac{1}{\omega_d|x|^d}\right) = \frac{\psi(d/2)-\gamma}{2} - \ln(|πx|)$ as proved here The Fourier transform of $1/p^3$.

LL 3.14
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  • One should be a little careful, to note that there are other homogeneous, radially symmetrical tempered distributions, namely $\delta, \Delta \delta, \Delta^2\delta, \ldots$. However, their degrees of homogeneity (depending on your conventions...) are different from $1/|x|^\alpha$ for $0<\alpha<n$ on $\mathbb R^n$. – paul garrett Jul 02 '20 at 17:01
  • Yes you are right, I corrected. – LL 3.14 Jul 02 '20 at 17:19
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I started this before @ll-3-14 posted a much more deft answer, but I got far enough that I decided not to discard mine.


Tempered distribution boilerplate

Let $\varphi\in\mathcal{S}(\mathbb{R}^3)$, and let $\mathsf{T}$ be the tempered distribution defined by \begin{equation} \mathsf{T}[\varphi] = \int_{\mathbb{R}^3}\frac{\varphi(x)}{\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert^2}dV. \end{equation} As a tempered distribution, $\mathsf{T}$ has a Fourier transform $\widehat{\mathsf{T}}$ defined by\begin{equation} \widehat{\mathsf{T}}[\varphi] = \mathsf{T}[\widehat{\varphi}] = \int_{\widehat{\mathbb{R}}^3}\frac{\widehat{\varphi}(k)}{\left\Arrowvert k\right\Arrowvert^2}dV \end{equation} for each $\varphi\in\mathcal{S}(\mathbb{R}^3)$. I write that $\widehat{\varphi}\in\mathcal{S}(\widehat{\mathbb{R}}^3)$ to indicate that the Fourier transform $\widehat{\varphi}$ is a function on the "conjugate space" $\widehat{\mathbb{R}}^3$.
Beginning the transformation

The goal is to express this as an integral (or limit of integrals) involving $\varphi$ instead of $\widehat{\varphi}$.

\begin{equation} \begin{split} \int_{\widehat{\mathbb{R}}^3}\frac{\widehat{\varphi}(k)}{\left\Arrowvert k\right\Arrowvert^2}dV(k) = \int_{\widehat{\mathbb{R}}^3}\frac{1}{\left\Arrowvert k\right\Arrowvert^2}\left[\int_{\mathbb{R}^3}\varphi(x)e^{-ik\cdot x}dV(x)\right]dV(k), \end{split} \end{equation} where $dV(k)$ is the "differential volume" at $k\in\widehat{\mathbb{R}}^3$ and $dV(x)$ is the "differential volume" at $x\in\mathbb{R}^3$.

\begin{equation} \begin{split} &~\lim_{R\to\infty}\int_{\{k:\left\Arrowvert k\right\Arrowvert\leq R\}}\frac{1}{\left\Arrowvert k\right\Arrowvert^2}\left[\int_{\mathbb{R}^3}\varphi(x)e^{-ik\cdot x}dV(x)\right]dV(k)\\ &=~ \lim_{R\to\infty}\int_{\mathbb{R}^3}\varphi(x)\left[\int_{\{k:\left\Arrowvert k\right\Arrowvert\leq R\}}\frac{e^{-i x\cdot k}}{\left\Arrowvert k\right\Arrowvert^2}dV(k)\right]dV(x) \end{split} \end{equation}

Let $r = \left\Arrowvert k\right\Arrowvert$. In 3-dimensional spherical co-ordinates, \begin{equation} dV(k) = r^2\sin\theta d\theta~dr~d\phi, \end{equation} where $\theta$ is the polar angle (varying from 0 to $\pi$ radians) and $\phi$ is the azimuthal angle (varying from 0 to $2\pi$ radians).


The secret

The only angular dependence of the integrand is the dependence on the angle between $x$ and $k$. Define the co-ordinate system so that $x$ points along the $z$-axis, so that \begin{equation} x\cdot k = \left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert\left\Arrowvert k\right\Arrowvert\cos\theta = \left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r\cos\theta, \end{equation} where $\theta$ is the polar angle. The integral of interest is now \begin{equation} \int_{0}^{2\pi}\left[\int_{0}^{R}\left[\int_{0}^{\pi}\frac{e^{-i\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r\cos\theta}}{r^2}\sin\theta d\theta\right]r^2dr\right]d\phi = 2\pi\int_{0}^{R}\left[\int_{0}^{\pi}e^{-i\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r\cos\theta}\sin\theta d\theta\right]dr. \end{equation}
Calculus!

Let $u = \left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r\cos\theta$, so that \begin{equation} du = -\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r\sin\theta~d\theta, \end{equation} and \begin{equation} \begin{split} \int_{0}^{\pi}e^{-i\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r\cos\theta}\sin\theta d\theta &=~ \int_{u=\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r}^{u=-\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r} e^{-iu}\frac{(-1)du}{\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r}\\ &=~ \frac{1}{\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r}\int_{u=-\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r}^{u=\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r}e^{-iu}du\\ &=~ \frac{1}{\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r}\left(\left.\frac{e^{-iu}}{-i}\right|_{u=-\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r}^{u=\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r}\right)\\ &=~ \frac{1}{\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r}\left(\frac{-2i\sin(\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r)}{-i}\right)\\ &=~ \frac{2\sin(\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r)}{\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r}. \end{split} \end{equation}
A sincing feeling

The integral of interest is now \begin{equation} 4\pi\int_{0}^{R}\textrm{sinc}(\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r)dr, \end{equation} where we are using the un-normalized sinc function. We perform another change of variable: \begin{equation} v = \left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert r,~~~\textrm{so that}~~~dr = \frac{dv}{\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert}. \end{equation} The integral is \begin{equation} \frac{4\pi}{\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert}\int_{0}^{R/\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert}\textrm{sinc}(v)dv. \end{equation} There was no other specific $R$-dependence, and we are taking limits anyway with integrals "against" Schwartz functions, so we can replace $R/\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert$ with, say, $\rho$. We have \begin{equation} \widehat{\mathsf{T}}[\varphi] = \lim_{\rho\to\infty}\int_{\mathbb{R}^3}\varphi(x)\frac{4\pi}{\left\Arrowvert x\right\Arrowvert}\left[\int_{0}^{\rho}\textrm{sinc}(v)dv\right]dV(x). \end{equation}
Joe Mack
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