Existence of extremals for a Fourier restriction inequality (Q1951725)

The main result of this paper is that there is an extremizer in \(L^2(\mathbb S^2)\) for the adjoint Fourier restriction inequality of P. A. Tomas and E. M. Stein in \(\mathbb R^3\), that is, a function that converts the mentioned inequality into equality. Characterizations for a functions to be an extremizer are given. It is also proven that any extremizing sequence of nonnegative functions has a subsequence that converges to an extremizer. Though the analysis follows the general concentration compactness framework developed by P.-L. Lions, the exposition is self-contained.