Bilinear generalized Radon transforms in the plane

Abstract

Let $σ$ be arc-length measure on $S^1\subset \mathbb R^2$ and $Θ$ denote rotation by an angle $θ\in (0, π]$. Define a model bilinear generalized Radon transform, $$B_θ(f,g)(x)=\int_{S^1} f(x-y)g(x-Θy)\, dσ(y),$$ an analogue of the linear generalized Radon transforms of Guillemin and Sternberg \cite{GS} and Phong and Stein (e.g., \cite{PhSt91,St93}). Operators such as $B_θ$ are motivated by problems in geometric measure theory and combinatorics. For $θ<π$, we show that $B_θ: L^p({\Bbb R}^2) \times L^q({\Bbb R}^2) \to L^r({\Bbb R}^2)$ if $\left(\frac{1}{p},\frac{1}{q},\frac{1}{r}\right)\in Q$, the polyhedron with the vertices $(0,0,0)$, $(\frac{2}{3}, \frac{2}{3}, 1)$, $(0, \frac{2}{3}, \frac{1}{3})$, $(\frac{2}{3},0,\frac{1}{3})$, $(1,0,1)$, $(0,1,1)$ and $(\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{2})$, except for $\left( \frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{2} \right)$, where we obtain a restricted strong type estimate. For the degenerate case $θ=π$, a more restrictive set of exponents holds. In the scale of normed spaces, $p,q,r \ge 1$, the type set $Q$ is sharp. Estimates for the same exponents are also proved for a class of bilinear generalized Radon transforms in $\mathbb R^2$ of the form $$ B(f,g)(x)=\int \int δ(ϕ_1(x,y)-t_1)δ(ϕ_2(x,z)-t_2) δ(ϕ_3(y,z)-t_3) f(y)g(z) ψ(y,z) \, dy\, dz, $$ where $δ$ denotes the Dirac distribution, $t_1,t_2,t_3\in\mathbb R$, $ψ$ is a smooth cut-off and the defining functions $ϕ_j$ satisfy some natural geometric assumptions.

18 pages, 3 figures