Use the Fourier transform convention and , so . All distribution pairings use complex bilinearity, and the formal transpose is , without complex conjugation of the coefficients. If instead denotes , the Fourier multiplier is ; the argument below is unchanged after this substitution.
For a nonempty compact convex set , let be its support function. The Paley–Wiener–Schwartz theorem says that the Fourier transform is a bijection between distributions supported in and entire functions on for which
for some and nonnegative integer . In particular, support in is equivalent to the bound with . Convexity is essential in the precise support formulation: the support function of a set equals that of its convex hull.
Suppose first that is a compactly supported distribution with support in . Define , inserting any cutoff function equal to one near when viewing on test functions. A fixed cutoff and the finite order of a distribution estimate permit differentiation of the pairing in each complex variable, giving . The exponential function's power series converges with every required derivative on a fixed compact set; hence is an entire function. On real frequencies it agrees with the Fourier transform of a compactly supported distribution.
The exact exponential indicator needs a shrinking cutoff function, rather than one fixed outside . Choose near , with support in and for . Such a cutoff is obtained by convolving the indicator of with a mollifier supported in . On one fixed ball containing all these supports, the finite order of a distribution bound is
The Leibniz rule applied to therefore gives
Taking proves the required bound, with and a fixed additional factor at most .
Conversely, suppose is an entire function with the displayed bound. Its real restriction has polynomial growth, so its inverse Fourier transform defines a tempered distribution by
Rapid decay of the Schwartz function makes this integral absolutely convergent and continuous in the Schwartz space topology.
To determine the support of a distribution, take a test function supported in a half-space , where and . The contour-shift proof of the Paley–Wiener–Schwartz theorem gives, for each ,
Here is the estimate that justifies both the shift and its limiting use. Since , repeated integration by parts with yields
For fixed , the same estimate is uniform over the imaginary strip from to . Rotate coordinates so is the first coordinate direction, apply the Cauchy integral theorem on truncated rectangles, and let their real edges tend to infinity. If , the boundary integrals vanish and the horizontal integrals converge absolutely; thus the claimed shift is valid. Using now bounds the pairing by
which tends to zero. A separating hyperplane exists at every point outside the compact convex set . A finite partition of unity on the support of any exterior test function reduces it to such half-spaces, so . Fourier inversion gives uniqueness; the entire transform of this agrees with on and hence everywhere, by applying the one-variable identity theorem successively in each coordinate. This completes both directions.
Now apply this theorem to compact support solvability for a constant-coefficient ordinary differential equation. If is a nonzero constant, its kernel is zero and is the unique solution. Otherwise write
The solution space of is
Indeed these exponentials solve the equation, their initial derivative vectors have a nonzero Vandermonde determinant, and uniqueness for the order- ordinary differential equation makes them a basis. Pairing with any such solution proves necessity:
For sufficiency, choose with and let . The assumed annihilation is precisely for every . Since all roots of a polynomial are simple, has removable singularities at every root and is an entire function. Outside one disk, . Inside that disk, the extended is bounded. The polynomial division preservation of exponential type therefore gives
The Paley–Wiener–Schwartz theorem produces a compactly supported distribution with transform , supported in the same interval. Then , so Fourier inversion gives . Thus
The compactly supported solution is unique: forces the entire transform to vanish off the finitely many roots and hence everywhere. With repeated roots, the corresponding condition would also require derivatives , or pairing with , up to one less than each multiplicity.
The multiplication of a distribution by a smooth function is . If is a Schwartz function, the Leibniz rule shows that is a continuous map , so is a tempered distribution. When both and are radial, , and
Thus Multiplication by a radial Schwartz function preserves radial tempered distributions.
For the convolution of a tempered distribution with a Schwartz function, set
Translations of depend smoothly on in the Schwartz space, so this is a smooth function with . The bound for by finitely many seminorms, together with , proves
Thus the function also defines a tempered distribution. For a radial function , put . Then , so
Hence Convolution with a radial Schwartz function preserves radial tempered distributions.
Smoothing alone need not give a Schwartz function: for the constant tempered distribution and a Schwartz function with integral one, . The radial Schwartz approximation of tempered distributions therefore combines smoothing with a large-radius cutoff. Choose a nonnegative radial mollifier , supported in the unit ball with integral one, and a radial cutoff function equal to one on the unit ball. Put
Each is a smooth function of compact support, hence a Schwartz function, and the two invariance calculations above make it radial.
It remains to prove convergence, including the simultaneous changes of both scales. With , the distributional convolution pairing is
For every fixed , the Leibniz rule, rapid decay outside the radius- ball, and the chain rule for give
Convolution by is uniformly bounded in for , because its shifts have size at most one. The mean value theorem applied to similarly gives
Splitting the error into the convolved cutoff error and the approximate identity error proves
If , this yields
Consequently
weakly, and even in the strong dual topology, since is uniformly bounded on every subset of the Schwartz space that is a bounded set in a topological vector space. No assertion that itself is rapidly decreasing is needed.
For multi-indices , define
These seminorms define the Fréchet space topology of the Schwartz space: exactly when every tends to zero. An equivalent increasing family is
A tempered distribution is a continuous linear functional on this space. Equivalently, for some . The usual weak convergence of tempered distributions means for every fixed Schwartz function. The strong dual topology instead requires uniform convergence on every subset of the Schwartz space that is a bounded set in a topological vector space; the Fourier maps below are continuous in both topologies.
Using , differentiation under the integral and integration by parts give
The omitted coefficient has modulus one. By the Leibniz rule, every integrand is a finite sum of a polynomial times a derivative of . Inserting the integrable weight bounds its L1 norm by finitely many Schwartz space seminorms. In particular . Thus the Fourier transform maps continuously into itself.
For completeness, the Fourier inversion theorem follows here by Gaussian regularization. The inverse transform of is . The Fourier transform of a Gaussian and Fubini's theorem show
As , the right side tends to by the approximate identity property, while the left side tends to the undamped inverse integral by dominated convergence theorem, since . Hence
The inverse is times reflection composed with the continuous Fourier transform, and is therefore continuous on the Schwartz space. This proves a continuous linear isomorphism with continuous inverse.
Define the Fourier transform of a tempered distribution by
The continuous map on Schwartz space makes this a tempered distribution; the transpose of supplies its inverse. Pointwise convergence of pairings proves weak continuity. For the strong dual topology, the transform of a bounded set of Schwartz functions is bounded, so uniform convergence of pairings on bounded sets proves continuity of both Fourier maps there too.
Now let be a rotation matrix in the special orthogonal group and write . A change of variables with unit Jacobian gives
The rotation equivariance of the Fourier transform on tempered distributions follows by duality:
Therefore . Applying this identity and the inverse Fourier transform gives the two directions:
This is precisely preservation of radial tempered distributions. For , acts transitively on spheres, so an invariant smooth function is an ordinary radial function.
The Schwartz space consists of the smooth functions for which
for all multi-indices . Its topology is generated by these seminorms; means convergence in every seminorm. A tempered distribution is a continuous linear functional on this space. Convergence in here means weak convergence: for every Schwartz function.
Use the unnormalized angular-frequency Fourier transform
The transform is a continuous automorphism of the Schwartz space, so this duality defines a tempered distribution. Put , as required by the stated identities. Integration by parts and differentiation under the integral give
Thus, keeping the transpose factor of explicit,
and
Iterating gives the Fourier derivative identities for distributions
The logarithm defines a tempered distribution because it is locally integrable and grows more slowly than a polynomial. Its derivative is . The standard transform pair , obtainable by the residue theorem, gives
As , we have . Define
This integral is absolutely convergent: the numerator is near zero, and the exponential controls the tails. It defines a tempered distribution satisfying the same multiplication equation. The kernel of multiplication by a coordinate therefore gives .
To determine , use the supplied Gaussian Fourier transform pair with . Then
Also by the dominated convergence theorem: the relevant integrand is bounded by a constant times for . Consequently
The cutoff limit agrees with the absolutely convergent integral; this particular subtraction convention fixes the otherwise ambiguous delta term. The reusable identity is Fourier transform of the logarithm of one plus x squared.
The Paley–Wiener–Schwartz theorem in its closed-ball form says that a tempered distribution is supported in if and only if its Fourier transform is the real restriction of an entire function on satisfying, for some and integer ,
The distribution is unique by Fourier inversion. More generally a compact convex support set replaces by its support function .
For the forward implication, a compactly supported distribution has finite order of a distribution, say , on a fixed neighborhood of its support. Define
using a cutoff equal to one near the support. Differentiation with respect to each complex coordinate is allowed in this pairing and gives , so is entire.
To obtain the exact radius , rather than an enlarged radius, choose a cutoff function equal to one near and supported in , with derivatives through order bounded by . Set . The finite-order bound and the Leibniz rule give
This proves the required growth estimate.
For the converse, has at most polynomial growth on real frequencies, so define its inverse tempered distribution by
Let a compactly supported test function lie in a half-space , with and . By contour shifting,
Here is the decay needed to justify the shift and then let grow. Repeated integration by parts, applying to , gives for every integer ,
Choose . For each fixed , this decay makes the vertical sides of a large rectangle vanish in the one complex coordinate parallel to ; Cauchy integral theorem then supplies the contour identity. Combining the two bounds yields
Thus vanishes on such test functions. Every point outside has a neighborhood of this form. A partition of unity therefore proves , completing the converse. The same argument with separating half-spaces proves the compact-convex-set form. This is the contour-shift proof of the Paley–Wiener–Schwartz theorem.
For a regular function , the change of variables gives
The map is continuous on the Schwartz space, so duality extends the dilation of a distribution to
Its Fourier transform obeys . If the original support is in the unit ball, the theorem bounds by . Hence
The converse theorem gives the support law for distributional dilation
For a locally integrable , the change of variables formula gives
This motivates
Because pullback by an invertible linear map acts continuously on the Schwartz space, the right side is a continuous linear functional of . It therefore defines a tempered distribution and agrees with ordinary pullback when is a function.
Using multi-index notation, the Schwartz space is
Its topology is generated by the displayed seminorms. The tempered distribution is its continuous dual, with weak convergence defined by convergence of every pairing with a Schwartz function.
For the convention
differentiation under the integral and integration by parts give
These identities bound every Schwartz seminorm of by finitely many seminorms of , proving continuity. The Fourier inversion theorem gives the continuous inverse
so the Fourier transform is a continuous isomorphism of . By duality,
defines a continuous isomorphism of .
The Schwartz space consists of smooth functions for which every seminorm
is finite. Convergence means convergence in every such seminorm. A tempered distribution is a continuous linear functional on this Fréchet space; in means for every test function .
The Riemann-Lebesgue lemma states that the Fourier transform of an function is continuous and tends to zero at infinity.
For a Schwartz function , differentiation under the integral and integration by parts give
The Riemann-Lebesgue lemma bounds the right side by an seminorm of . Every Schwartz seminorm of is therefore bounded by finitely many Schwartz seminorms of . Hence the Fourier transform maps continuously into itself.
Using multi-index notation, the Schwartz space is
A sequence converges to in this Fréchet space when for every . The space of tempered distributions is the continuous dual of , and there means weak convergence of distributions, namely for every .
Continuity of a linear functional immediately implies that entails . Conversely, enumerate the Schwartz seminorms as . If were not continuous, then for each one could choose such that
Every fixed seminorm tends to zero along this sequence, so in , contradicting the assumed sequential property. This is the sequential continuity criterion for a linear map on a metrizable topological vector space.
Since maps the Schwartz space continuously to itself, the formula
defines a continuous linear functional on , hence a tempered distribution. For a locally integrable function , the change of variables formula gives
so this dilation of a distribution agrees with ordinary function dilation.
For , the Sobolev trace theorem states that the restriction map initially defined on smooth functions extends uniquely to a bounded linear operator
Take first in the Schwartz space. Up to the harmless constant determined by the Fourier transform convention,
The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, with weights , gives
After the substitution , the second factor is
where finiteness is exactly the condition . Multiplying by and integrating in yields
Density of the Schwartz space in the Sobolev space completes the unique bounded extension.
We prove the estimate first for in the Schwartz space. By the Fourier inversion theorem and the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality,
The integral is finite because .
For , the elementary bound
gives
The last integral is finite near zero for every and at infinity exactly when . Choose, for example, , which works for every . We obtain
Density of the Schwartz space in extends the estimate and supplies a unique Hölder-continuous representative. Therefore
continuously. This is the Fourier proof of Hölder regularity from a Sobolev norm.
The Schwartz space on the real line is
These seminorms define its Fréchet space topology. The space of tempered distributions is its continuous dual space,
With the angular-frequency convention, the Fourier transform of a Schwartz function is
It maps continuously to itself. The transform of is defined through the dual pairing:
up to the fixed reflection and factor if the inverse-transform convention is used for the test function.