Harmonic Hadamard manifolds and Gauss hypergeometric differential equations (Q2329640)

In this paper the authors initiate the study of spherical Fourier transform on hypergeometric-type manifolds which are a sub-class of harmonic Hadamard manifold of positive entropy. A harmonic Hadamard manifolds of positive entropy is said to be of hypergeometric type if a spherical function, and hence all spherical functions, satisfies a Gauss hypergeometric differential equation under the change of variables, $z = - \sinh^2\frac{r}{2}$. The Damek-Ricci spaces [\textit{E. Damek} and \textit{F. Ricci}, J. Geom. Anal. 2, No. 3, 213--248 (1992; Zbl 0788.43008)], on which the analysis of spherical Fourier transform has already been well studied, are special cases of harmonic Hadamard manifolds of hypergeometric type. The authors define the spherical Fourier transform on hypergeometric-type manifolds and prove an inversion formula for the same. The proof of the inversion formula follows \textit{F. Götze}'s approach [Nederl. Akad. Wet., Proc., Ser. A 68, 396--404 (1965; Zbl 0141.11304)], wherein the authors say that the theory of Jacobi transform could as well be used for the same (see [\textit{T. H. Koornwinder}, in: Special functions: Group theoretical aspects and applications. Math. Appl. D. Dordrecht: Reidel Publ. Co. 1--85 (1984; Zbl 0584.43010)]). They also prove a result giving necessary and sufficient conditions, in terms of the mean curvature or the volume density of geodesic spheres, for a harmonic Hadamard manifold of positive volume entropy to be of hypergeometric type.