On the solvability of second kind integral equations on the real line (Q1977774)

The authors consider general second kind integral equations of the form \[ \phi(s)-\int_{\mathbb R}k(s,t)\phi(t) dt=\psi(s),\qquad s\in\mathbb R \] (in operator form \(\phi-{\mathcal K}_{k}\phi=\psi\)), where the right-hand function \(\psi\) and the solution \(\phi\) belong to the space \(Y\) of bounded continuous functions on \(\mathbb R\), and \(k\) is such that the mapping \(s\rightarrow k(s,\cdot)\) from \(\mathbb R\) to \(L_{1}(\mathbb R)\) is bounded and continuous (the class \(BC(\mathbb R,L_{1}(\mathbb R))\)). Conditions on a set \(W \subset BC(\mathbb R,L_{1}(\mathbb R))\) are obtained such that a generalized Fredholm alternative holds: If \(W\) satisfies these conditions and \(I-{\mathcal K}_{k}\) is injective for all \(k\in W\) then \(I-{\mathcal K}_{k}\) is also surjective for all \(k\in W\) and the inverse operators \((I-{\mathcal K}_{k})^{-1}\) (acting in \(Y\)) are uniformly bounded for \(k\in W\). The approximation of the kernel in the integral equation by a sequence \(\{k_{n}\}\) converging in a weak sense to \(k\) is also considered and results on stability and convergence are obtained. These general theorems are used to establish results for some special classes of kernels. Applications to a rough surface scattering problem are given.