A new proof of the support theorem and the range characterization for the Radon transform

The aim of this note is to give a new and elementary proof of the support theorem for the Radon transform, which is based only on the projection theorem and the Paley-Wiener theorem for the Fourier transform. The idea is to solve a certain system of linear equations in order to determine the coefficients of a homogeneous polynomial (interpolation problem). By the same method, we get a short proof of the range characterization for Radon transforms of functions supported in a ball.