On the admissible asymptotic behavior of the functions with zero integrals over the geodesic lines on a sphere (Q892113)

Odd continuous functions on the 2-sphere \(\mathbb{S}^2\) can be characterized as the continuous functions with zero integral over any large circle of \(\mathbb{S}^2\). The authors consider the set \(\mathcal{M}\) of continuous functions \(f\) on the 2-sphere with the poles removed \(\mathcal{S}:= \mathbb{S}^2\sim\{(0,0,\pm 1)\}\) with zero integral over any large circle from \(\mathcal{S}\). In Theorem 1.1 it is proved that any even function \(f\in \mathcal{M}\) must vanish provided \(f(\xi)=o(1/(1-\xi_3))\) as \(\xi_3\to 1\). Furthermore, nonzero even smooth functions in \(\mathcal{M}\) that are \(O(1/(1-\xi_3))\) do exist. Consequently any \(f\in \mathcal{M}\) that is \(o(1/(1-\xi^2_3))\) as \(\xi_3\to \pm 1\) must be odd. The proof consists in describing some properties of the Fourier components \[ f_k(\theta)=(1/2\pi)\int_0^{2\pi}f(\sin\theta,\sin\varphi,\sin\theta\cos\varphi,\cos\theta) e^{-ik\varphi}d\varphi \] of any even continuous function \(f\) on \(\mathcal{M}\), where \((\varphi,\theta)\) represent the spherical coordinates of \(\xi\in \mathcal{S}\). It is first shown that \(f\in\mathcal{M}\) if and only if \(f^k(\xi)\in \mathcal{M}\) for any integer \(k\) where \(f^k(\xi)=f_k(\theta)e^{ik\varphi}\), and if \(f\) is even, of class \(C^m\), and of the form \(f(\xi)=u(\theta)e^{ik\varphi}\) then the even \(C^{m-1}\)-functions \((D_{\pm k}u)(\theta)e^{i(k\pm 1)\varphi}\) lie on \(\mathcal{M}\) as well, where \((D_ku)(\theta)=u'(\theta) -k\cot \theta\, u(\theta)\). Then, using the fact that an even function of \(\mathcal{M}\) depending only on \(\theta\) must be zero, leads to the following representation of the Fourier coefficients in terms of finite linear combinations of trigonometric functions. \[ f_k(\theta)=\frac{1}{(\sin \theta)^{|k|}}\sum_{j=0}^{[|k|/2]-1}c_{j,k}(\cos\theta)^{2j+2\{k/2\}}. \] To prove the converse, namely that any function represented in this way lies in \(\mathcal{M}\) and is even, the authors show that the functions \(S_{\nu,k}(\xi)=P_{\nu}^{-k}(\cos\theta)e^{ik\varphi}\) lie in \(\mathcal{M}\) for \(\nu\) odd and \(k\in \mathbb{Z}_+\), where \(P_{\nu}^{\mu}\) is the first-kind Legendre function on \((-1,1)\), what implies the same for the even functions \(e^{ik\varphi}(\cos\theta)^{2j}/(\sin \theta)^k\) and \(e^{ik\varphi}(\cos\theta)^{2j+1}/(\sin \theta)^k\), for \(j, k\) under certain conditions.