On the extremal rays of the cone of positive, positive definite functions (Q1040675)

The main object under consideration in the present paper is the class \(\Omega_n\) of continuous and radial positive definite functions on \(\mathbb{R}^n\) and its subclass (sub-cone) \(\Omega_n^+\) of non-negative functions from \(\Omega_n\). The Choquet theory applies to \(\Omega_n^+\), so every \(f\in\Omega_n^+\) admits an integral representation over extremals. A function \(f\in\Omega_n^+\) is called an extremal ray generator (e.r.g.) if \(f=g+h\), \(g,h\in\Omega_n^+\) implies \(g=\lambda f\), \(0\leq\lambda\leq 1\). An old conjecture of Choquet that the only e.r.g. in \(\Omega_n^+\) are the Gaussians, is disproved by the authors who give examples of the extremals in the subclass of compactly supported functions in \(\Omega_n^+\) (in particular, \(f(x)=(1-|x|)_+\) is among them). The authors also investigate the class of Hermite functions, i.e., functions of the form \(P(x)e^{-ax^2}\), \(a>0\), \(P\) an even polynomial, and describe exactly the set of functions \(P(x)e^{-\pi x^2}\), \(P\) a polynomial of degree \(4\), in \(\Omega_1^+\). As it turns out, this set contains e.g.r.