We define lacunary Fourier series on a compact connected semisimple Lie group
$G$. If $f \in L^1(G)$ has lacunary Fourier series, and vanishes on a non empty
open set, then we prove that $f$ vanishes identically. This may be viewed as a
qualitative uncertainty principle

Narayanan, E K

Sitaram, A

English

arXiv

We define lacunary Fourier series on a compact connected semisimple Lie group G. If f∈L1(G) has lacunary Fourier series and f vanishes on a non empty open subset of G, then we prove that f vanishes identically. This result can be viewed as a qualitative uncertainty principle

Narayanan, E. K.

Sitaram, A.

Publications of the IAS Fellows

Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Math. Sci.) Vol. 121, No. 1, February 2011, pp. 77–81.
c© Indian Academy of Sciences
Lacunary Fourier series and a qualitative uncertainty principle
for compact Lie groups
E K NARAYANAN and A SITARAM
Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India
E-mail: naru@math.iisc.ernet.in; sitaram.alladi@gmail.com
MS received 19 July 2010; revised 24 November 2010
Abstract. We define lacunary Fourier series on a compact connected semisimple Lie
group G. If f ∈ L1(G) has lacunary Fourier series and f vanishes on a non empty
open subset of G, then we prove that f vanishes identically. This result can be viewed
as a qualitative uncertainty principle.
Keywords. Lacunary Fourier series; uncertainty principles; Weyl’s character formula.
1. Introduction
A set A ⊂ Z is called Q-thin if it is contained in N or −N and if
|n|/|m| ≥ Q ∀n,m ∈ A, |n| > |m|.
The set A is called lacunary (in the sense of Hadamard (see page 109 of [2])) if, either A
is empty or there are N ∈ N and Q > 1 such that A ∩ [N ,∞) and A ∩ (−∞,−N ] are
Q-thin. Then the following result is well known.
Theorem 1.1. Let A be a f inite union of lacunary sets and g ∈ L2(T) be such that
{m : gˆ(m) 	= 0} ⊂ A. Then g vanishes identically provided g vanishes on a set of positive
measure.
This can be proved using the fact that finite union of lacunary sets is sparse.
See page 109–110 of [2]. See also Chapter V, Theorem 6.13 of [9].
Our aim in this paper is to define lacunarity on a compact connected semisimple Lie
group G, using the canonical parametrization of irreducible unitary representations of G.
Using our definition, we prove that, if f ∈ L1(G) has lacunary Fourier series and f
vanishes on a non empty open subset of G, then f vanishes identically. Before we state
and prove our main result, let us recall some facts.
Let G be a compact connected semisimple Lie group and T a maximal torus of G. The
Lie algebras of G and T will be denoted by g and t, respectively. Let gC and tC denote
the complexifications of g and t respectively.
We now describe the Weyl character formula for G which will be needed later. For any
unexplained terminology, we refer to [8].
77
78 E K Narayanan and A Sitaram
Theorem 1.2 Let G be a compact connected semisimple Lie group and let R+ be a
positive system of roots. Then the irreducible characters of G are in one-to-one corre-
spondence with the positive characters of T (whose derivatives satisfy conditions (I) and
(II) listed below). If χ is one such character of T, the corresponding irreducible character
χ of G (restricted to T ) is given by
χ =
(∑
w
ε(w)χw
)/
+, (1.1)
where + = ∑w ε(w)ξwρ (see page 40 of [8]).
Here ρ is the half-sum of positive roots and ξwρ = w · ξρ where ξρ(exp H) = eρ(H) and
w · χ is the action of the Weyl group on the characters χ of T . Notice that +(t) χ(t)
is a finite Fourier series on T .
The unitary dual of G, denoted by Gˆ, is described by the theorem of highest weight
and is parametrized by a certain lattice in t∗
C
. If λ ∈ tC∗ , then λ is a highest weight and
gives rise to a unitary irreducible representation of G if and only if the following two
conditions are satisfied:
(I) Positivity and integrality conditions: 2λ(Hα)
α(Hα) ∈ Z+ for all α ∈ R+, the set of positive
roots,
(II) λ arises from a character of T, i.e. λ restricted to t is the derivative of a character
on T .
It follows that Gˆ can be identified with a subset of a (full) lattice contained in the dual
of T . For more on compact semsimiple Lie groups, we refer to [5] and [8].
Next, we define lacunary Fourier series on G. Let f be an L1 function on G and let
π( f ) denote the Fourier transform of f defined by
π( f ) =
∫
G
f (x) π(x) dx,
where π is an irreducible unitary representation of G. As mentioned earlier Gˆ may be
identified with a subset of a lattice in the dual of the maximal torus T . This is done as
follows: We identify the lattice generated by the elements in t∗
C
satisfying (I) and (II)
above with a subset of the lattice Zk where k = dim T . We say that f ∈ L1(G) has
lacunary Fourier series if the set E = {π : π( f ) 	= 0} (considered as the lattice defined
earlier) satisfies the following:⋃
w∈W
w · E ⊂ E1 × E2 × · · · × Ek,
where each E j ⊂ Z, j = 1, 2, . . . , k is a finite union of lacunary sets. We emphasize that
our def inition of lacunarity dif fers from that of Helgason (see [3]).
2. Proof of the main result
In this section we prove the main result. We start with the following lemma.
Lacunary Fourier series for compact Lie groups 79
Lemma 2.1. Let g ∈ C(Tk) and spec(g) = {gˆ(m) 	= 0 : m ∈ Zk} ⊂ E1 ×E2 ×· · ·×Ek,
where each E j ⊂ Z, j = 1, 2, . . . , k is a f inite union of lacunary sets. If g vanishes on a
non empty open subset of Tk, then g vanishes identically.
Proof. This follows from Theorem 1.1 and induction on k. 
Now we are in a position to state and prove the main result of this paper.
Theorem 2.2. Suppose f ∈ L1(G) has lacunary Fourier series. If f vanishes on a non
empty open subset of G, then f ≡ 0.
Proof. Let spec( f ) ⊂ Zk correspond to {π ∈ Gˆ : π( f ) 	= 0}. Notice that if f has
lacunary Fourier series then so do the translates of f. Hence, without loss of generality we
may assume that f vanishes in a neighborhood of the identity in G. Convolving f with
smooth approximate identities supported in small neighborhoods of the identity of G, we
may assume that f is continuous, indeed smooth.
Now, consider the function Ff defined as
Ff (x) =
∫
G
f (gxg−1) dg.
Since one can choose a metric on G which is biinvariant, it is clear that Ff vanishes
in a small enough neighborhood of identity in G. Also, Ff is a central function and so
is determined by its restriction (still denoted by Ff ) to the maximal torus T . A simple
computation using Schur’s orthogonality relations shows that
Ff (t) =
∑
π∈Gˆ
Trace(π( f )) π(t),
where t ∈ T and π is the character of π defined by π(x) = Trace(π(x)). By Weyl’s
character formula we get
+(t)Ff (t) =
∑
π∈Gˆ
Trace(π( f ))
(∑
w
ε(w)χwπ (t)
)
,
where the positive character χπ of T corresponds to π ∈ Gˆ. Notice that, the set of nonzero
Fourier coefficients of +(t) Ff (t) is contained in
⋃
w∈W w · spec( f ) which satisfies
eq. (1.1). Since Ff vanishes on an open set, by Lemma 2.1, Ff vanishes identically. It
follows that Trace(π( f )) is zero for π ∈ Gˆ.
Next, notice that any translate of f has lacunary Fourier series. If g varies in a small
enough neighborhood of the identity in G, then applying the above argument to the trans-
lated function g f (x) = f (gx) we obtain that Trace(π(g−1)π( f )) is zero for all g in a
small neighborhood and all π ∈ Gˆ. For each π, g → Trace(π(g−1)π( f )) is a real ana-
lytic function and hence it follows that Trace(π(g−1)π( f )) is identically zero for each π.
This clearly implies that f is zero, by the inversion formula. 
80 E K Narayanan and A Sitaram
Remark 2.3. Using the parametrization of the unitary dual of a compact connected Lie
group G via the highest weight theorem, one may extend the main result to compact
groups, without the assumption of semisimplicity.
Remark 2.4. If G = U (n), then Gˆ can be canonically identified with a subset of Zn
(see [8]). The Weyl group W is the permutation group Sn . If A = A1 × A2 × · · · × An
where each A j ⊂ Z, j = 1, 2, . . . , n is lacunary. Then it is easy to see that A satisfies
eq. (1.1). (Note that U (n) is not semisimple.) We feel that even in the general case, the
main theorem will go through with this more relaxed definition of lacunarity. However, at
the moment we are not able to prove this.
Remark 2.5. Ideally one would like to get the exact analogue of Theorem 1.1, but the
averaging method used here to convert the problem to one on the torus works only if
we assume that the set on which f vanishes is open. If f vanishes on a set of positive
measure, then Ff considered as a function on T need not necessarily vanish on a set of
positive measure on T. However, if f vanishes on a neighborhood of the identity in G,
then Ff considered as a function on T vanishes on a neighborhood of the identity in T.
3. Uncertainty principles
To quote G B Folland, “the uncertainty principle is a meta theorem in harmonic analysis
that can be summarized as follows: A non zero function and its Fourier transform cannot
both be sharply localized.” For more on uncertainty principles on compact groups, we
refer to [7] (see also Theorem 2.6 in [4]) and [6] and for uncertainty principles, in general,
to [1].
A function on Zn can be thought of as localized, if it is supported on a lacunary set.
The opposite of a localized function is a spread out function. A function whose closed
support is all of G can be thought of as a highly spread out function. Thus Theorem 2.2
says that if the Fourier transform of a function on G is localized, then the function itself
has to be necessarily spread out—thus illustrating the uncertainty principle in the context
of compact groups.
Acknowledgement
We thank G B Folland for drawing our attention to Chapter V, Theorem 6.13 of [9]. The
first-named author was supported in part by a grant from UGC via DSA-SAP and the
second-named author was supported by the Raja Ramanna Fellowship of DAE.
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Lacunary Fourier series and a qualitative uncertainty principle for compact Lie groups

We define lacunary Fourier series on a compact connected semisimple Lie group G. If f is an element of L-1 (G) has lacunary Fourier series and f vanishes on a non empty open subset of G, then we prove that f vanishes identically. This result can be viewed as a qualitative uncertainty principle

Lacunary Fourier series and a qualitative uncertainty principle for compact Lie groups

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