Support theorems for the Radon transform and Cramér-Wold theorems (Q842394)

This article presents extensions of the Cramér-Wold theorem to measures that may have infinite mass near the origin. Corresponding results for sequences of measures are presented together with examples showing that the assumptions imposed are sharp. The extensions build on a number of results and methods, that have been developed essentially during the 1980s and 1990s, concerned with injectivity properties of the Radon transform. One purpose of this article is to contribute to making known to probabilities interesting results for the Radon transform that have appeared in the mathematical literature. As is well known, the Radon transform and its generalizations have been studied extensively after the invention of Computerized Tomography in the 1970s. Using a few tools from distribution theory and Fourier analysis we show that the presented injectivity results for the Radon transform lead to Cramér-Wold type results for measures. This paper is self-contained and only a minimum of basic tools from distribution theory and Fourier analysis are needed.