Wilson's functional equation on C

Summary We find the complete set of continuous solutionsf, g of Wilson's functional equation _{n = 0} ^{N – 1} f(x + wⁿy) = Nf(x)g(y), x, y C, given a primitiveN ^th rootw of unity.Disregarding the trivial solutionf = 0 andg any complex function, it is known thatg satisfies a version of d'Alembert's functional equation and so has the formg(z) = g (z) = N^–1 _{n = 0} ^{N – 1} E(wⁿz) for some C². HereE ₍₁, ₂)(x + iy) = exp( ₁x + ₂).For fixedg = g the space of solutionsf of Wilson's functional equation can be decomposed into theN isotypic subspaces for the action of Z _N on the continuous functions on C. We prove that ther ^th component, wherer {0, 1, ,N – 1}, of any solution satisfies the signed functional equation _{n = 0} ^{N – 1} f(x + wⁿy)w^nr = Ng(x)f(y), x, y C. We compute the solution spaces of each of these signed equations: They are 1-dimensional and spanned byz _{n = 0} ^{N – 1} w^nr E(wⁿz), except forg = 1 andr 0 where they are spanned by andz ^{N – r}. Adding the components we get the solution of Wilson's equation. Analogous results are obtained with the action ofZ _N on C replaced by that ofSO(2).The case ofg = 0 in the signed equations is special and solved separately both for Z _N andSO(2).