A generalized Liouville theorem via division

W}e study the equation $P(i\nabla)u=0$ on $\mathbb{R}^d$ for a class of admissible symbols $P$ whose zero set is the unit sphere $S^{d-1}$ and which vanish there to some finite order. Working in the framework of Lizorkin distributions, and hence without any boundedness or decay hypothesis on $u$, we give a complete classification of the solutions: $u$ solves $P(i\nabla)u=0$ if and only if $\hat{u}$ is a multi-layer distribution on $S^{d-1}$ of order at most $N$. Alternatively, $u$ solves $P(i\nabla)u=0$ if and only if $(1+\Delta)^{N+1}u=0$ if $P$ satisfies a flatness condition. The proof recasts the equation as a division problem and combines the order of vanishing of $P$ with the structure theorem for distributions. This unifies and extends known Helmholtz-type rigidity results, which correspond to a simple zero on the sphere, to symbols with zeros of arbitrary finite order.