English

Inverse spectral problems for positive Hankel operators

Spectral Theory 2026-04-17 v3

Abstract

A Hankel operator Γ\Gamma in L2(R+)L^2(\mathbb{R}_+) is an integral operator with the integral kernel of the form h(t+s)h(t+s), where hh is known as the kernel function. It is known that Γ\Gamma is positive semi-definite if and only if hh is the Laplace transform of a positive measure μ\mu on R+\mathbb{R}_+. Thus, positive semi-definite Hankel operators Γ\Gamma are parameterised by measures μ\mu on R+\mathbb{R}_+. We consider the class of Γ\Gamma corresponding to \emph{finite} measures μ\mu. In this case it is possible to define the (scalar) spectral measure σ\sigma of Γ\Gamma in a natural way. The measure σ\sigma is also finite on R+\mathbb{R}_+. This defines the \emph{spectral map} μσ\mu\mapsto\sigma on finite measures on R+\mathbb{R}_+. We prove that this map is an involution; in particular, it is a bijection. We also consider a dual variant of this problem for measures μ\mu that are not necessarily finite but have the finite integral 0x2dμ(x); \int_0^\infty x^{-2}\mathrm{d}\mu(x); we call such measures \emph{co-finite}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.22189,
  title  = {Inverse spectral problems for positive Hankel operators},
  author = {Alexander Pushnitski and Sergei Treil},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.22189},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

final version (minor updates). To appear in Analysis & PDE

R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:37:42.143Z