No label defined (Q4380144)

In his study of two-dimensional manifolds all of whose geodesics are closed, \textit{P. Funk} [Über eine geometrische Anwendung der Abelschen Integralgleichung. Math. Ann. 77, 129-135 (1916; JFM 45.0533.01)] proved that an even function on \(S^2\) is determined by its great circle integrals. In the year after Funk's work, \textit{J. Radon} [Über die Bestimmung von Funktionen durch ihre Integralwerte längs gewisser Mannigfaltigkeiten. Ber. Verh. Sächs. Akad. Wiss. Leipzig 69, 262-277 (1917; JFM 46.0436.02, cf. also Zbl 0826.44001)] showed that a function on \(\mathbb{R}^2\) can be explicitly determined by its line integrals. The very title of Radon's paper suggests the problem of determining a function on a manifold on the basis of its integrals over certain submanifolds. The variety of examples for which this problem has been solved suggests that a completely general attack on the problem would not go very far. Somehow one should therefore restrict the generality. In this expository paper we describe in \S 2 a group-theoretic approach to Radon's problem, in \S 3 we examine the case of totally geodesic submanifolds in a manifold of constant curvature \(\neq 0\) and in \S 4 we describe results about the range of the Radon transform for the flat case.