Almost everywhere divergence of spherical harmonic expansions and equivalence of summation methods (Q1998657)

Let \(\mathbb{S}^n\), \(n\ge2\), be the \(n\)-dimensional sphere equipped with the surface measure \(\sigma\). For \(f\in L^1(\mathbb{S}^n):=L^1(\mathbb{S}^n,\sigma)\) consider the spherical harmonic expansion \(f\sim \sum_{k=0}^\infty\mathrm{proj}_k f\), where \(\mathrm{proj}_k\) is the projection operator onto \(\mathcal H_k^n\), the space of spherical harmonics of degree \(k\). It is known that there exists \(f\in L^1(\mathbb{S}^n)\) such that the series \(\sum_{k=0}^\infty\mathrm{proj}_k f\) diverges a.e. Given \(\delta>0\) let \(S_N^\delta f\), \(N=0,1,\ldots\), be the \(\delta\)-Cesàro means of~\(f\). \textit{C.~Meaney} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 131, No.~10, 3123--3128 (2003; Zbl 1042.42025)] showed that for \(\delta<\delta_0:=(n-1)/2\) there exists a (zonal) function \(f\in L^1(\mathbb{S}^n)\) such that \(S_N^\delta f\) diverges a.e. \textit{A.~Bonami} and \textit{J.-L. Clerc} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 183, 223--263 (1973; Zbl 0278.43015)] showed that for \(\delta>\delta_0\), \(S_N^\delta f\) converges a.e. to \(f\). \textit{S.~Chanillo} and \textit{B.~Muckenhoupt} [Weak type estimates for Cesàro sums of Jacobi polynomial series. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (1993; Zbl 0773.40001)] showed that for zonal \(f\in L^1(\mathbb{S}^n)\), \(S_N^{\delta_0} f\) converges a.e. to \(f\). The main result of the paper shows the existence of \(f\in L^1(\mathbb{S}^n)\) such that \(S_N^{\delta_0} f\) diverges (unboundedly) a.e. The proof is constructive and relies on precise estimates of the corresponding summation kernels.