Surjectivity of convolution operators on noncompact symmetric spaces (Q2215818)

In the 1960, Ehrenpreis proved an important result on the following question. Let \(\mu\) be a fixed distribution in \(\mathcal{E}'(\mathbb{R}^n)\). Under what conditions on \(\mu\) is the convolution operator \(c_\mu\colon f\mapsto f\star \mu\) surjective as a map from \(\mathcal{E}(\mathbb{R}^n)\) to \(\mathcal{E}(\mathbb{R}^n)\) or from \(\mathcal{D}'(\mathbb{R}^n)\) to \(\mathcal{D}'(\mathbb{R}^n)\)? Ehrenpreis proved a theorem containing five equivalent conditions answering these questions. In the present paper, the authors endeavour to prove an analogue of Ehrenpreis's theorem to symmetric spaces of noncompact type. They prove that if \(c_\mu\colon \mathcal{E}(X) \to \mathcal{E}(X)\) is surjective, then the spherical Fourier transform \(\tilde{\mu}(\lambda)\) is slowly decreasing. This result is the converse of a result proven earlier in [\textit{J.~Christensen} et al., J. Funct. Anal. 272, No.~9, 3610--3646 (2017; Zbl 1366.43006)]. A key ingredient of that result is the fact that the adjoint of the Abel transform on distributions is a linear bijection from \(\mathcal{E}_W(\mathfrak{a})\) onto \(\mathcal{E}_K(X)\). The authors then explore further properties of the right convolution operator \(c_\mu\) on the symmetric space \(X\). They show that the map \(c_\mu\colon \mathcal{D}'_K(X)\to \mathcal{D}'_K(X)\) is surjective if and only if the spherical Fourier transform \(\tilde{\mu}(\lambda)\) is slowly decreasing which implies Helgason's fundamental solution result in [\textit{S.~Helgason}, Am. J. Math. 86, 565--601 (1964; Zbl 0178.17001)]. They also show that \(c_\mu\) has a fundamental solution if and only if \(\tilde{\mu}(\lambda)\) is slowly decreasing. The authors have succeeded in proving an analogue of Ehrenpreis's theorem but removing the condition of \(K\)-invariance in the above criterion remains an open question.