Modified spherical harmonics (Q2361399)

Let \(\Delta\) be the Laplace operator in \(\mathbb R^3\) with the coordinates \((x,y,t)\). The author is interested in the solutions of the equation \[ t \Delta v + \frac{\partial v}{\partial t} =0 \tag{1} \] which is a particular case of the equation \[ t \Delta v+ \lambda \frac{\partial v}{\partial t} =0 ,\tag{2} \] with \(\lambda\) real, generalizing the classical harmonic functions in the sense that the family of equations (2) gives (1) for \(\lambda=1\) and gives the harmonic functions for \(\lambda=0\). Equation (1) can be seen also as the Laplace-Beltrami equation associated with the Riemannian metric \( \displaystyle ds^2 = t^2 \left( dx^2 + dy^2 + dt^2 \right)\). For all these reasons the solutions of (1) are called modified harmonic functions (m.h.f. briefly). The declared aim of this work is to show that m.h.f. on the half-sphere \( \displaystyle S_+ = \left\{ (x,y,t) \mid x^2 + y^2 + t^2=1, \; \; t > 0 \right\} \) in \(\mathbb R^3\) behave essentially like the classical spherical harmonics on the full sphere but the work does not reduce to it only. One finds an example of a family of homogeneous polynomials \(H^k_n\) of degree \(n\) which are m.h.f.; for a fixed \(n\) and \(0 \leq k \leq n\), the polynomials prove to form an explicit basis for the \(\mathbb R\)-linear space \( \displaystyle \mathcal H_n \left( \mathbb R^3 \right) \) of all homogeneous modified harmonic polynomials of degree \(n\) on \(\mathbb R^3\), hence \( \displaystyle \mathrm{dim\,} \mathcal H_n \left( \mathbb R^3 \right) =n+1 \). The mean-value property is valid for m.h.f., implying in particular that a m.h.f. on \(\mathbb R^3\), which is non-negative on the upper-half space \(\mathbb R^3_+\), is a constant function. An analogue of the Poisson integral for m.h.f. is deduced from the paper [\textit{A. Huber}, Ann. Math. (2) 60, 351--358 (1954; Zbl 0057.08802)], where a more general situation is considered, and its properties are analyzed. Modified spherical harmonics are studied as well as some special m.h.f. A connection of m.h.f. with the classical polyharmonic functions of the plane is established. The action of the Möbius transformations of \(\mathbb R^3_+\) on m.h.f. on \(\mathbb R^3\) is described. A Fischer-type decomposition for m.h.f. is proved.