The extremal truncated moment problem (Q2481555): Difference between revisions

If \(\mu\) is a \(d\)-dimensional positive Borel measure, then its moments are \(\beta_i=\int x^i\,d\mu\), where \(x^i=\prod_{k=1}^d x_k^{i_k}\). The truncated moment problem is to find a representing \(\mu\), given the moments \(\{\beta_i : i\in{\mathbb Z}_+^d, | i| \leq 2n\}\). These moments define a moment functional \(\Lambda\) on the space of polynomials \({\mathcal P}_n\) of degree \(\leq n\). The moment matrix \({\mathcal M}(n)\) containing all these moments is positive semidefinite (it is Hankel when \(d=1\)). Its kernel are the vectors whose entries are the coefficients of the polynomials \(p\in K=\{p\in{\mathcal P}_n:\Lambda(p)=0\}\). Finally, define the variety \({\mathcal V}=\{z\in{\mathbb C}: p(z)=0, \forall p\in K\}\). If a solution to the moment problem exists, then its support can only be part of \({\mathcal V}\). Necessary conditions for the solvability of the truncated moment problem are that (1) \({\mathcal M}(n)\geq0\), (2) if \(p,q,pq\in{\mathcal P}_n\) and \(p\in K\), then \(pq\in K\), (3) \(r=\text{rank}\;{\mathcal M}(n)\leq \text{card}\;{\mathcal V}=v\). In an attempt to answer the question if these conditions are also sufficient, it is proved that for \(d=2\), \(n=3\), \(r=v=7\) or 8, and for a particular moment matrix, the answer is positive. If (2) is replaced by the stronger condition that all \(p\in{\mathcal P}_{n}\) vanishing on \({\mathcal V}\) belong to \(K\), the existence of a representing \(r\)-atomic \(\mu\) is proved in the case \(r=v\). Some positive evidence is given that this is also suffcient when \(r\leq v\), but no hard proof is given yet.