Eigenfunctions on symmetric spaces with distribution-valued boundary forms

A characterization is given for those eigenfunctions of invariant differential operators on symmetric spaces of noncompact type which are representable as generalized Poisson integrals of distributions on the boundary, the criterion being that the function grow no faster than some power of the exponential of the distance from the origin. For symmetric spaces of arbitrary rank, the result is proved in one direction only, namely, that the Poisson integral of a distribution satisfies the growth condition; however, for rank one symmetric spaces, the converse is also shown to be true.