A qualitative uncertainty principle for functions generating a Gabor frame on LCA groups (Q1874618)

Let \(G\) be a locally compact abelian group and let \(m_G\) and \(\mu_G\) be the Haar measures on \(G\) and the dual group \(\widehat G\) of \(G\), respectively, normalized such that Plancherel's formula holds. It is well-known that \(m_G(\text{supp }f) \mu_G(\text{supp }\widehat f)\geq 1\) for every non-zero \(f\in L^2(G)\). Actually, when \(G_0\), the connected component of the identity in \(G\), is non-compact, the following qualitative uncertainty principle (QUP) holds: If \(0\neq f\in L^2(G)\), then \(m_G(\text{supp }f)= \infty\) or \(\mu_G(\text{supp }\widehat f)= \infty\). Associated to \(f\in L^2(G)\) and any uniform lattice \(K\) of \(G\) is the set \(S(f,K)\) consisting of all \(L^2\)-functions \(x\to \gamma(x) f(xk)\), where \(k\in K\) and \(\gamma\in \widehat{G/K}\subseteq\widehat G\). Motivated by the fact that frames are important in signal and image processing and sampling theory, the author studies the problem of when there exist \(f\in L^2(G)\) such that \(S(f, K)\) forms a frame for \(L^2(G)\) and \(f\) satisfies \(m_G(\text{supp }f) \mu_G(\text{supp }\widehat f)= 1\). As expected in view of the above QUP, these two conditions are very restrictive. In fact, it turns out that such an \(f\) exists if and only if \(G= K\times S\) so that \(f\) is supported on a coset of \(S\) and \(\widehat f\) is supported on a coset of \(\widehat{G/S}\) (Theorem 2.5 and Corollary 2.6). Let \(f\in L^2(G)\) and suppose that \(\text{supp }\widehat f\) is compact and \(S(f,K)\) is a frame. If \(H\) is a compact open subgroup of \(G\) such that \(H\cap K\subseteq G_0\), then \(m_G(\text{supp }f)\geq [G: HK]m_G(H)\) (Theorem 4.2). By fairly explicit constructions it is shown that the lower bound is attained and that, in addition, \(f\) can be chosen to have compact support (Theorem 4.4). In contrast, if \(H\cap K\) is not contained in \(G_0\) then \(f\) can be found such that both \(f\) and \(\widehat f\) have compact support and \(S(f,K)\) is a frame, but \(m_G(\text{supp }f)< [G:HK] m_G(H)\) (Theorem 4.5).