On point to point reflection of harmonic functions across real-analytic hypersurfaces in \(\mathbb{R}^ n\) (Q1922217)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a non-singular real-analytic hypersurface in some domain \(U\subset \mathbb{R}^n\) and let \(H(U, \Gamma)\) denote the space of functions that are harmonic on \(U\) and vanish on \(\Gamma\). In the case where \(\Gamma\) is a hyperplane or a sphere it is well-known that functions in \(H(U, \Gamma)\) satisfy a reflection principle. The paper is concerned with the question as to whether a similar reflection principle holds for other hypersurfaces \(\Gamma\). More precisely, if \(\Gamma= \{x\in U: f(x)= 0\}\), where \(f\) is a real-analytic function on \(U\) with non-vanishing gradient on \(\Gamma\) and \(U^+= \{x: f(x)> 0\}\), \(U^-= \{x: f(x)< 0\}\), then given \(x\in U^+\), do there exist \(y\in U^-\) and a constant \(K= K(x, \Gamma)\) such that \(u(x)+ Ku(y)= 0\) for all \(u\in H(U, \Gamma)\)? It is shown that if the dimension \(n\) is odd, then the answer is no, unless \(\Gamma\) is a sphere or hyperplane. In even-dimensional spaces the situation is different; the authors give necessary and sufficient conditions, which are described both analytically and geometrically, for reflection to be possible.