On the Fourier transform of SO(d)-finite measures on the unit sphere

The paper presents a simple new approach to the problem of computing Fourier transforms of SO(d)-finite measures on the unit sphere in the euclidean space. Representing such measures as restrictions of homogeneous polynomials we use the canonical decomposition of homogeneous polynomials together with the plane wave expansion to derive a formula expressing such transforms under two forms, one of which was established previously by F. J. Gonzalez Vieli. We showthat equivalence of these two forms is related to a certain multi-step recurrence relation for Bessel functions, which encompasses several classical identities satisfied by Bessel functions. We show it leads further to a certain periodicity relation for the Hankel transform, related to the Bochner- Coifman periodicity relation for the Fourier transform. The purported novelty of this approach rests on the systematic use of the detailed form of the canonical decomposition of homogeneous polynomials, which replaces the more traditional approach based on integral identities related to the Funk-Hecke theorem. In fact, in the companion paper the present authors were able to deduce this way a fairly general expansion theorem for zonal functions, which includes the plane wave expansion used here as a special case.Received: 7 May 2004; revised: 11 October 2004