The wave front set of the Fourier transform of algebraic measures (Q498991)

The simplest version of the main result of this paper is the following. Let \(f\) be a polynomial on a finite dimensional vector space \(W\). Then the Fourier transform of the absolute value of \(f\) is smooth on a dense open subset of \(W^*\). This result holds uniformly over all local fields \(F\) of characteristic \(0\): If the inputs are defined over some field \(K\) (i.e., \(W = W_K \otimes_K F\) for some \(K\)-vector space \(W_K\) and \(f\) is obtained from a polynomial on \(W_K\) with coefficients in \(K\)), then the authors obtain a dense open sub-variety \(L \subset W_K^*\) such that the Fourier transform is smooth on \(L(F)\), for every \(F\) as above and for every embedding of \(K\) into \(F\). The full main result strengthens the above in several ways. In particular, the absolute value of a polynomial can be replaced by a more general distribution on \(W\), e.g., by the direct image \(\phi_*(|\omega|)\) of the measure induced by a regular top differential form \(\omega\) on a smooth algebraic variety \(X\), under a proper map \(\phi: X \to W\). Moreover, the result about the Fourier transform is more precise, stating that its wave front set is contained in an isotropic algebraic sub-variety of \(T^*(W^*) = W \times W^*\) (which again can be given uniformly in \(F\)). Several of the weaker versions of the main result have been known before. What is new is a uniform (in \(F\)) description of the wave front set of Fourier transforms. Moreover, this description is specified explicitly in terms of a desingularization. (Desingularization is a key ingredient to the proof, in contrast to older proofs which used \(D\)-modules in the archimedean case and model theory in the non-archimedean case.)