Smoothness of solutions of a convolution equation of restricted-type on the sphere

Let $\mathbb{S}^{d-1}$ denote the unit sphere in Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$, $d\geq 2$, equipped with surface measure $\sigma_{d-1}$. An instance of our main result concerns the regularity of solutions of the convolution equation $$a\cdot(f\sigma_{d-1})^{\ast {(q-1)}}\big\vert_{\mathbb{S}^{d-1}}=f,\text{ a.e. on }\mathbb{S}^{d-1},$$ where $a\in C^\infty(\mathbb{S}^{d-1})$, $q\geq 2(d+1)/(d-1)$ is an integer, and the only a priori assumption is $f\in L^2(\mathbb{S}^{d-1})$. We prove that any such solution belongs to the class $C^\infty(\mathbb{S}^{d-1})$. In particular, we show that all critical points associated to the sharp form of the corresponding adjoint Fourier restriction inequality on $\mathbb{S}^{d-1}$ are $C^\infty$-smooth. This extends previous work of Christ & Shao to arbitrary dimensions and general even exponents, and plays a key role in a companion paper.