The restriction conjecture for the sphere

Let S=Sd1Rd\mathbb S=\mathbb S^{d-1}\subset\mathbb R^d be the unit sphere, let dσS\mathrm d\sigma_{\mathbb S} be its surface measure, and let 1p,q1\leq p,q\leq\infty with pp' defined by

1p+1p=1.\frac{1}{p}+\frac{1}{p'}=1.

The p,qp,q restriction estimate is the assertion that there is a constant Cp,q(S)C_{p,q}(\mathbb S) such that, for every fS(Rd)f\in\mathcal S(\mathbb R^d),

(Sf^(ξ)qdσS(ξ))1/qCp,q(S)(Rdf(x)pdx)1/p.\left(\int_{\mathbb S}|\widehat f(\xi)|^q\,\mathrm d\sigma_{\mathbb S}(\xi)\right)^{1/q}\leq C_{p,q}(\mathbb S)\left(\int_{\mathbb R^d}|f(x)|^p\,\mathrm dx\right)^{1/p}.

The restriction conjecture for the sphere. This estimate should hold when

p<2dd+1andqd1d+1p.p<\frac{2d}{d+1}\quad\text{and}\quad q\leq\frac{d-1}{d+1}p'.

The conjecture is resolved in dimension d=2d=2 by work of Fefferman and Zygmund, but remains open in dimensions d3d\geq 3.

Equivalent formulations 2

Other statements of this same problem, merged from separate entries. Each is equivalent to the statement above — proving any one settles them all.

  1. The restriction conjecture for the sphere

    Let n2n\geq 2, let Sn1Rn{\mathbb S}^{n-1}\subset\mathbb R^n be the unit sphere, and let R(pq)R(p\to q) denote the restriction estimate

    f^Sn1Lq(Sn1)CfLp(Rn).\left\|\widehat{f}\big\vert_{{\mathbb S}^{n-1}}\right\|_{L^q({\mathbb S}^{n-1})}\leq C\left\|f\right\|_{L^p(\mathbb R^n)}.

    Here fS(Rn)f\in\mathcal{S}(\mathbb R^n) and CC is independent of ff. Restriction conjecture. Determine the full range of exponents (p,q)[1,]2(p,q)\in[1,\infty]^2 for which R(pq)R(p\to q) holds for every smooth function fS(Rn)f\in\mathcal{S}(\mathbb R^n). The conjecture is a central problem in Fourier restriction theory; the full range remains open, although the case q=2q=2 was solved by Tomas and Stein.

    source: Cristina Benea, Frederic Bernicot and Teresa Luque, “Sparse bilinear forms for Bochner Riesz multipliers and applications”, arXiv:1605.06401 (2016).

  2. The restriction conjecture for the sphere

    Let SS be the unit sphere in Rd{\mathbb R}^d, and let σS\sigma_S denote its surface measure. For a function ff on Rd{\mathbb R}^d, write f^\widehat f for its Fourier transform, and let pp' be the conjugate exponent to pp. Restriction conjecture. The estimate

    (Sf^(ξ)rdσS(ξ))1/rCp,r(Rdf(x)pdx)1/p\left(\int_S |\widehat f(\xi)|^r\,d\sigma_S(\xi)\right)^{1/r} \leq C_{p,r}\left(\int_{{\mathbb R}^d}|f(x)|^p\,dx\right)^{1/p}

    should hold whenever

    p<2dd+1,rd1d+1p.p<\frac{2d}{d+1},\qquad r\leq \frac{d-1}{d+1}p'.

    This is the central restriction problem for the sphere; substantial partial results and recent developments are known, but the stated range remains open in general.

    source: Alex Iosevich and Azita Mayeli, “Uncertainty Principles on Finite Abelian Groups, Restriction Theory, and Applications to Sparse Signal Recovery”, arXiv:2311.04331 (2023).

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Philippe Jaming, Alexander Iosevich and Azita Mayeli, “Uncertainty Principle, annihilating pairs and Fourier restriction”, arXiv:2502.13786 (2025).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.