Injectivity sets for spherical means on the Heisenberg group (Q5955052)

It is shown that the cylinders \(\Gamma_R=S_R \times\mathbb{R}\), where \(S_R\) is the sphere \(\{z\in\mathbb{C}^n:|z|=R\}\), are sets of injectivity for the spherical means on the Heisenberg group \(\mathbb{H}^n\) in \(L^p\) spaces. On \(\mathbb{R}^n\) the spherical mean of a continuous function \(f\) is defined by \[ f*\sigma_r (x)=\int_{S_r}f(x-y) d\sigma_r(y), \] where \(\sigma_r\) is the normalized surface measure on the sphere \(S_r=\{y\in \mathbb{R}^n: |y|= r\}\). Let \(V\) be a class of functions on \(\mathbb{R}^n\). We say that a subset \(\Gamma\) of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) is a set of injectivity for the spherical mean in \(V\) if \(f*\sigma_r (x)=0\) for all \(r>0\) on \(\Gamma\) implies \(f=0\) for every \(f\in V\). The spheres in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) are not sets of injectivity for the spherical means in \(L^p(\mathbb{R}^n)\) with \(p>{2n \over n-1}\). On the other hand, when \(p\leq {2n\over n-1}\), boundaries of bounded regions in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) are sets of injectivity for the spherical means in \(L^p(\mathbb{R}^n)\). This result has been proved by \textit{M. L. Agranovsky}, \textit{C. Berenstein} and \textit{P. Kuchment} [J. Geom. Anal. 6, 365-383 (1998; Zbl 0898.44003)]. On the Heisenberg group \(\mathbb{H}^n= \mathbb{C}^n \times \mathbb{R}\) the spherical mean of a function \(f\) is defined by \[ f*\mu_R (z,t)= \int_{\mathbb{H}^n} f\Bigl(z-w,t-s- \mathfrak 12\text{Im}(z\cdot \overline w) \Bigr) d\mu_R, \] where \(\mu_R\) is the normalized surface measure on \(S_R \times \{0\}\) in \(\mathbb{H}^n\) and \(S_R=\{z\in\mathbb{C}^n: |z|=R\}\). The authors prove the following theorem: Theorem A. Let \(1\leq p\leq 2\). Then the cylinder \(\Gamma_R=S_R\times\mathbb{R}\) is a set of injectivity for the spherical means on \(\mathbb{H}^n\) in \(L^p(\mathbb{H}^n)\). The restriction \(1\leq p\leq 2\) in the theorem is imposed for technical reasons. The authors expect that the above theorem is true for all \(p\), \(1\leq p<\infty\). This theorem is proved from a uniqueness theorem for the heat equation associated to the sub-Laplacian on \(\mathbb{H}^n\). The twisted spherical mean value operator of a function \(f\) on \(\mathbb{C}^n\) is defined by \[ f \times\mu_r (z)=\int_{S_r} f(z-w)e^{(i/2) \text{Im} (z\cdot\overline w)}d \mu_r, \] where \(\mu_r\) is the normalized surface measure on the sphere \(S_r\) on \(\mathbb{C}^n\). For \(1\leq p\leq\infty\), let \(V_p\) be the space of functions satisfying \(f(z)e^{(1/4) |z|^2} \in L^p(\mathbb{C}^n)\). A spherical mean value operator \(M_r\) on \(\mathbb{R}^n\) related to the Hermite operator is defined by \[ M_rf(x)= \int_{S_r}e^{i(x\cdot u+(1/2) u\cdot v)}f (x+v)d\mu_r(w), \] where \(w=u+iv \in \mathbb{C}^n\). For \(1\leq p\leq\infty\), let \(B_p\) be the space of continuous functions on \(\mathbb{R}^n\) for which \(f(x)e^{(1/2) |x|^2} \in L^p( \mathbb{R}^n)\). For these spherical mean value operators the authors prove the following theorem: Theorem B. Let \(1\leq p\leq\infty\). (i) The spheres in \(\mathbb{C}^n\) are sets of injectivity for the twisted spherical mean value operator in \(V_p\). (ii) The spheres in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) are sets of injectivity for the spherical mean value operator \(M_r\) in \(B_p\). This theorem is proved by using spherical harmonic expansions and a Hecke-Bochner type identity for the Weyl transform which is due to \textit{D. Geller} [Can. J. Math. 36, 615-684 (1984; Zbl 0596.46034)].