Tensor tomography in periodic slabs (Q1753724)

This paper studies the X-ray transform of tensor fields on the manifold \([0, 1] \times {\mathbb T}^n\), \(n \geq 0\), where \({\mathbb T}^n = {\mathbb R}^n/{\mathbb Z}^n\). The integrals are over geodesics joining boundary points, not trapped geodesics. The main result completely characterizes functions in the kernel of this transform as the sum of two kinds of functions: those arising from potentials (symmetrized differentials of tensor fields of lower order) and those depending only on the variable on \([0,1]\). In particular, the X-ray transform is always non-injective, even for scalar fields in all dimensions. The characterization extends to more general manifolds, such as twisted slabs, including the Möbius strip as the simplest example.