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Communications in Partial Differential Equations

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Riesz transforms and the wave equation for the

hermite operator
a
S. Thangavelu
a
T.I.F.R. Centre, I.I.Sc Campus, Post Box No. 1234, Bangalore, 560 012, India
Published online: 09 May 2007.

To cite this article: S. Thangavelu (1990): Riesz transforms and the wave equation for the hermite operator,
Communications in Partial Differential Equations, 15:8, 1199-1215

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 COMMUN. IN PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS, 15(8), 1199-1215 (1990)

RIESZ TRANSFORMS AND THE WAVE EQUATION

FOR THE HERMITE OPERATOR

S. Thangavelu

T.I.F.R. Centre,
1.I.Sc Campus, Post Box No.1234,
Bangalore-560 012,
India.

1. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of the paper is to study analogues of

the classical Riesz transforms for the Hermite Operator
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

H = (-A + 1 XI 2
) on R~ and then use them to prove
certain 'L - L2 estimates for the solutions of the

associated wave equation.

Let Aj = q x j , Aj
a * -- a
-?txj, j =1,2,.... ..n be

respectively the 'annihilation' and the 'creation'

operators considered as unbounded operators on L'(R~)

defined on their natural domains. Then the Hermite

1 operator can be written as

Let &a stand for the normalised Hermite functions on R~

so that

I Copyright O 1990 by Marcel Dekker, Inc.

 1200 THANGAVELU

2
Let PN be the projection of L (Rn) onto the eigenspace
spanned by ma with (a1 = N so that the Hermite operator
has the spectral resolution

--1
Then one can define H to be the operator with
spectral resolution given by

In the classical case the Riesz transforms are

1
-H a
defined by R ( A ) K ,j = 1,2,...n. In analogy with
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

j
J
this we like to study the following operators which we
call the Riesz transforms for the Hermite operator :

for j = 1,2,...n. As in the case of the classical

Riesz transforms we have the following result.

THEOREM 1
The operators R
*
R . are all bounded on L'(R~),
j' J

Next we consider the following Cauchy problem for

the wave equation associated with the Hermite operator.
 RIESZ TRANSFORMS 1201

Formally the unique solution of the above problem is

given by 1 1
u(x,t) = H-'(sin(t~
Z)

If f has the Hermite expansion f = PNf then the

N=O
solution u has the expansion

Normally neither the expansion for f nor the expansion

(1.8) for the solution u will converge for f in L'([R~),

p + 2. In this paper we are going to show that if p is
close enough to 2 then the series defining u do
converge in the L2 norm. Thus for LP initial data we
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

get an L2 solution and further the dependence of u on f

is continuous. The following is the result we obtain.

THEOREM 2
Assume that f E L'(LR"), < p 5 2.
Then the
solution u of the Cauchy problem (1.6) is in L2 (R") and
we have
llu(* *t)H2 SfHp
where C is independent of t.

In proving this theorem we need not use the R iesz

transform. But they find their way into the study 0f

the following Cauchy problem :

 1202 THANGAVELU

Formally, the solution of this problem is given by

u(x,t) = (cos tHZ )f(x). (1.10)

Again for L'(IR~) initial data with p close enough to 2

we obtain the following theorem.

THEOREM 3

Assume that -
2(ntl)
nt3 < p I 2 and f E LP(IRn) is such
that
a
x .f, ~f are all in LP(~"), j = .
1,2,. .n. Then
J
J
the solution of the Cauchy problem (1.9) satisfies the
estimate
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

where the constant C is independent of t.

It is in proving this theorem that we use the

boundedness of the Riesz transforms. The basic idea
behind the proofs of these last two theorems is old. A
similar problem has been studied by R. Strichartz [ 7 ]
2
for the wave equation atu = Au on R". The solution
1 1 1
operators H-Zsin(tH Z ) and cos(tHZ ) will be embedded in
some analytic family of operators and then by appealing
to Stein's interpolation theorem for such families we
prove our theorems.

In [71 Strichartz proves more general LP - L4

estimates for the solutions of the wave equation. Here
 RIESZ TRANSFORMS 1203

we won't deal with that problem as we don't know if the

results we get are optimal or not in the present
situation.

2. RIESZ TRANSFORMS FOR THE HERMITE OPERATOR

In this section we prove that the operators R j, Rj

*
are bounded on LP(Rn), 1 < p < a. The boundedness of
these operators will be proved by using a transference
result, viz the result that every Weyl multiplier of
L'(c~) can be transfered to a bounded operator on
LP(Rn). So, we pause for a moment to recall relevant
facts about the Weyl multipliers.
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

The Weyl transform, which we denote by W, takes

2 n
functions on cn into operators bounded on L (R ) . This
transform enjoys many properties of the usual Fourier
transform. For example, there is an inversion formula
and also a Plancherel theorem. For all the facts about
the Weyl transform we refer to the paper of Mauceri

[3l.
2 n
Given a bounded operator M on L ([R ) we define an
operator TM on LP(cn) by setting

We say that M is a Weyl multiplier for L'(c") if the

above operator TM is bounded on L'(c~). The following
transference result is proved in [ 3 ] .
 THANGAVELU

THEOREM (Mauceri)

Let M be a Weyl multiplier for LP(cn), 1 < p < @.

Then M is a bounded operator on L'(R~).

In view of this transference theorem, if we can

*
show that R ,R. are all Weyl multipliers of L'(@~), 1 <
j~
p < @, then Theorem 1 will be established. To do this

we have to recall some more results concerning the Weyl

transform.

On cn consider the following vector fields

Then for every f in the Schwartz space one has the

Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

relations
W(Zjf) = i w(f)Aj,
* w(Zjf) = i W(f)A.. (2.3)
J

1
(Z.Z
J J
.+z.Z. )
J J
then it follows that

More generally, for any reasonable function p one has

the relation

In view of this equation we have

--1 -
W(Z . L 'f) = W(f)Rj, W(Zj
J
Thus M=R can be thought of as a Weyl multiplier and
j
-
-1
TMf=Z .L 2f. Similarly, for the other operators R*
J j'
 RIESZ TRANSFORMS 1205

--1 --21
Therefore, what we need to prove is that Z .L 2 .
J Zj~
are bounded operators on L'(@~), 1 < p < a.

To prove this we are going to apply the

oscillatory singular integral theorem of Ricci-Stein
[5]. For that purpose we need to recall the definition
and some properties of the twisted convolution. Given
two functions f and g on cn their twisted convolution,
denoted by f x g , is defined by
-+i~mz.v
-
f x g(z) = S f(z-v)g(v)e dv. (2.7)
cn
The Weyl transform of the twisted convolution becomes
the product of the Weyl transforms i.e.
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

w(f x g) = W(f) W(g). (2.8)

We also have the property that
-
Zj(f x g) = f x z.g, Zj(f x g ) = f X ZJ. g . (2.9)
J
for J ll2...,.n.
1 2
~ e vN(z)
t
n-1 1
= LN ( Z l ~ ( 2 :e-71~1 where n- 1
LN is the
Nth Laguerre polynomial of type (n-1) (see [8] for the
definition). Then it is proved in J. Peetre [4] that

pN = '(pN)' (2.10)
Therefore, if we define the Kernel K by

then it follows that '-fI = W(K). Hence we can write

 THANGAVELU

--1 --1 --1

W(L 2f) = W(f)H = W(f x K) or L 2f = f x K. In view
of (2.9) it follows that

-
We claim that the Kernels K and K satisfy the
.i j
following estimates.

PROPOSITION 2.1
The Kernel Kj(z) (resp.
-Kj(z) ) is a

Calderon-Zygmund kernel, i.e. it satisfies the

following estimates :
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

Once we have this proposition, it is then an easy

matter to complete the proof of Theorem 1. We have to

show that the operator f + f x K

j
is bounded in L'(@~),

1 < p < a. Since

where P is a polynomial and K . is a Calderon-Zygmund

J
kernel we can apply the oscillatory singular integral
--
1
theorem of Ricci-Stein to conclude that Z.L (resp.
1 J
--
2 .L 2, are bounded operators on L'(@~), 1 < p < 0).
J
 RIESZ TRANSFORMS 1207

Before going into the proof of Proposition 2.1 we

pause for a moment to make the following remark.

According to a theorem of Christ-Chanillo [I] the above

--1 1 --
operators Z .L (resp . L ) are actually weak type
J J
( 1 , l As there is no transference result for weak

type (1,l) operators, from this we cannot conclude that

*
Rj, Rj are weak type (1,l). But it is reasonable to
conjecture that they are weak type (1,l) operators.

To prove the proposition we start with the

following well known generating function relat ion for

the Laguerre functions (see [8]).
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

Therefore, we can write

and K.(z) = When t 2 1, sinh t behaves

J

like et and coth t behaves like a constant and hence

the integral

defines a nice kernel which clearly satisfies the

estimates i) and ii) of the proposition.

 1208 THANGAVELU

When t is small sinh t behaves like t and coth t

behaves like t-I and so we have to show that the

kernel's defined by the integral

3

satisfy the estimates i) and ii) of the proposition.

The above integral behaves like

which is bounded by the integral

0
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

The estimate ii) is similarly proved.

3. THE SOLUTION OPERATORS FOR THE WAVE EQUATION

1 1
First we consider the operator ~-'sin(tH Z), which

is the solution operator for the Cauchy problem (1.6).

--1 1
s =
n Z So, we are led to
Recall that s '.sin J l (a)
Z
consider the following family of operators :

where a can be taken to be complex. Thus we have an

analytic family of operators and as in [ 7 1 we can show

that this family is admissible in the sense of Stein
n- 1
[6]. Moreover, when a = - we have
 RIESZ TRANSFORMS 1209

n- 1
--1 -21
= H sin(t8 ) . (3.2)

For the above analytic family we prove the following

proposition,

PROPOSITION 3.1

- 2--(n-1)
5 ~(y)t
ii) H~~(-s+iy)fll~ 2 I I1
for every s > 0.

Assuming the proposition for a moment we will see

how we obtain Theorem 2. We consider another analytic

family defined by
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

n+ 1
Tt(a) = s t (-s + (- 2 +s)a). (3.3)
Then we have

By applying the interpolation theorem of Stein we get

forO< ~ < 1

ll~t(a)fIl, IIf 1,
where p is defined by -P1 = a By choosing a = n-1+2s
n+1+2s
n- 1
we get Tt(a) = St(2) and hence

where Ps
-1
-- n+3+2s
2(n+l+2s). If p > is given we can
 1210 THANGAVELU

--1 1
choose s > 0 so that p > Ps and H 'sin(t~Z ) will be

bounded from LPs into L

2 . Then an application of

Riesz-Thorin convexity theorem proves that

Keeping track of the constants it is easily seen that C

is independent of t.

Now back to the proposition. Claim (i) is

immediate. This follows from the relation

--
/ Ja(t)/ 5 C t
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

and the estimate valid for the Bessel

functions. To prove ii) we need the following estimate

for the projection operator PN'

PROPOSITION 3.2

Proof. As #PNfIl2 I it is enough to prove the

above estimate when p=l. Since

it is enough to prove that

n- 1

To prove this we use the fact that PN= W(pN) where pN

 RIESZ TRANSFORMS 1211

is the Laguerre function we have already seen in

section 2. Since the Weyl transform W(pN) is defined

by
1
~(p,) f(( ) = J pN(z)eiX.(~~+f
)f(~ty)dxdy
R~~
it is easy to see that PN=W(pN) is an integral operator

whose kernel iN(x,y) is given by

and hence we have the estimate

Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

The estimate for the integral on the right hand side of

the above inequality is well known (see, for example

Lemma 1 of Markett [2]). We get

and therefore

-
n-1
2
5 lC ~N
gives H ~ ~ f l \If 1 which proves the proposition
3.2.

Having proved the estimate of the proposition 3.2

we now have, when a = -s+iy

 1212 THANGAVELU

a s t h e s e r i e s converges. This completes t h e proof of

Proposition 3.1 and hence Theorem 2 is completely

proved.

Next we t u r n o u r a t t e n t i o n t o w a r d s the proof of

-1 - 1
Theorem 3 . A s s 'cos s = (n Z
?) J l ( s ) it is easier to
--
--1 1 2 -1
study the operator H cos ( t HZ ) rather than c o s ( t H2 ) .
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

W e c l a i m t h a t t o p r o v e Theorem 3 i t i s enough to show

that

To s e e t h i s w e c a n w r i t e

1 1 1 1
-2
c o s ( t ~ = f(H-'cos(tH
Z ))H-- A
*
t A.A.1
N=O J J
--1 1
1
= z(H 'cos(tH
Z
))
" (RjAj*
z +
*
R.A.). (3.11)
j=1 J J

Therefore, given (3.10) and the boundedness of the

R i e s z t r a n s f o r m s we g e t

which p r o v e s t h e t h e o r e m .
 RIESZ TRANSFORMS 1213

To establish (3.10), as in the case of H -3

1 --1 1
Z
sin(tH ) we would like to embedd H
2
cos(tH )
Z in an

analytic family of operators. This time we are led to

consider several families as shown below. Suppressing

the dependence on t let us define the following

families.
1 ~ -n ~ - l
2
sj(a) = t A ~ ( ~) H
Z1
n (tH ) ,
--a-1
2

When a = we have the relations

Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

and therefore we have

Thus it is enough to consider the operators S ( 2)

n- 1 and
 THANGAVELU

(* n-1 ) We consider n-71)

Sj( and the treatment of
* n-1
Sj(2) is completely similar.

Thus we are looking at the analytic family Sj(a)

n+ 1
defined in (3.12). When a = ( g ) + iy

--1 1 1
9 piy
1
As both A .H and (tH ) J
-2
(tH ) are bounded on
J --+2 iy

( R ~ we
) have
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

We can write S .(a) f in the form

J
1
Sj(a)f = t (A.H
-z
J

-
n- 1
4
In view of the estimate 5 C N llf#l we
*.
immediately see that

The rest is routine. By analytic interpolation theorem

we complete the proof.

REFERENCES

1. S. Chanillo and M. Christ, Weak (1,l) bounds for

oscillating singular integrals, Duke Math, J. Vol
55, No.1 (1987), 141-155
 RIESZ TRANSFORMS 1215

2. C. Markett, Mean Cesaro summability of Laguerre

expansions and norm estimates with shifted
parameter, Analysis Mathematics, 8 (1982), 19-37.

3. G. Mauceri, The Weyl transform and bounded

operators on L'([R~), Journal of Functional Analysis

39, 408 - 429 (1980).

4. J. Peetre, The Weyl transform and Laguerre Poly-

nomials, Mathematiche (Catania) 27 (1972), 301-323.

5. F. Ricci and E. Stein, Harmonic Analysis on

Nilpotent Groups and Singular integrals, 1.
Oscillatory integrals, J. Funct. Ana. 73 (1987),
179-194.
Communications in Partial Differential Equations 1990.15:1199-1215.

6. E , Stein and G. Weiss, Introduction to Fourier

Analysis on the Euclidean spaces, Princeton Univ.
Press, Princeton, N.J.(1971)

7. R. Strichartz, Convolutions with kernels having

singularities on a sphere, Trans.A.M.S. 148 (1970),

461-471.
8. G. Szego, Orthogonal polynomials, A.M.S. colloq.
Pub., A.M.S. Providence, R.I. (1967).

Received October 1989

Revised April 1990