It was observed recently in work of Bez, Buschenhenke, Cowling, Flock and the first author, that the euclidean Brascamp–Lieb inequality satisfies a natural and useful Fourier duality property. The purpose of this paper is to establish an appropriate discrete analogue of this. Our main result identifies the Brascamp–Lieb constants on (finitely-generated) discrete abelian groups with Brascamp–Lieb constants on their (Pontryagin) duals. As will become apparent, the natural setting for this duality principle is that of locally compact abelian groups, and this raises basic questions about Brascamp–Lieb constants formulated in this generality.

Let M(u), H(u) be the maximal operator and Hilbert transform along the parabola (t, ut2). For U ⊂ (0, ∞) we consider Lp estimates for the maximal functions sup u∈U|M(u)f| and sup u∈U|H(u)f|, when 1 < p ≤ 2. The parabolas can be replaced by more general non-flat homogeneous curves.

This paper is concerned with support theorems of the X-ray transform on non-compact manifolds with conjugate points. In particular, we prove that all simply connected 2-step nilpotent Lie groups have a support theorem. Important ingredients of the proof are the concept of plane covers and a support theorem for simple manifolds by Krishnan. We also provide examples of non-homogeneous 3-dimensional simply connected manifolds with conjugate points which have support theorems.

One of the fundamental results in convex geometry is Busemann's theorem, which states that the intersection body of a symmetric convex body is convex. Thus, it is only natural to ask if there is a quantitative version of Busemann's theorem, i.e., if the intersection body operation actually improves convexity. In this paper we concentrate on the symmetric bodies of revolution to provide several results on the (strict) improvement of convexity under the intersection body operation. It is shown that the intersection body of a symmetric convex body of revolution has the same asymptotic behavior near the equator as the Euclidean ball. We apply this result to show that in sufficiently high dimension the double intersection body of a symmetric convex body of revolution is very close to an ellipsoid in the Banach–Mazur distance. We also prove results on the local convexity at the equator of intersection bodies in the class of star bodies of revolution.

Let ${{F}_{2n,2}}$ be the free nilpotent Lie group of step two on $2n$ generators, and let $\mathbf{P}$ denote the affine automorphism group of ${{F}_{2n,2}}$. In this article the theory of continuous wavelet transform on ${{F}_{2n,2}}$ associated with $\mathbf{P}$ is developed, and then a type of radial wavelet is constructed. Secondly, the Radon transform on ${{F}_{2n,2}}$ is studied, and two equivalent characterizations of the range for Radon transform are given. Several kinds of inversion Radon transform formulae are established. One is obtained from the Euclidean Fourier transform; the others are from the group Fourier transform. By using wavelet transforms we deduce an inversion formula of the Radon transform, which does not require the smoothness of functions if the wavelet satisfies the differentiability property. In particular, if $n\,=\,1$, ${{F}_{2,2}}$ is the 3-dimensional Heisenberg group ${{H}^{1}}$, the inversion formula of the Radon transform is valid, which is associated with the sub-Laplacian on ${{F}_{2,2}}$. This result cannot be extended to the case $n\,\ge \,2$.

We establish a mixed norm estimate for the Radon transform in ${{\mathbb{R}}^{2}}$ when the set of directions has fractional dimension. This estimate is used to prove a result about an exceptional set of directions connected with projections of planar sets. That leads to a conjecture analogous to a well-known conjecture of Furstenberg.

We study a random field obtained by counting the number of balls containing a given point when overlapping balls are thrown at random according to a Poisson random measure. We describe a microscopic process which exhibits multifractional behavior. We are particularly interested in the local asymptotic self-similarity (LASS) properties of the field, as well as in its X-ray transform. We obtain two different LASS properties when considering the asymptotics either in law or in the sense of second-order moments, and prove a relationship between the LASS behavior of the field and the LASS behavior of its X-ray transform. These results can be used to model and analyze porous media, images, or connection networks.

In 1977 D. G. Kendall considered diffusions of shape induced by independent Brownian motions in Euclidean space. In this paper, we consider a different class of diffusions of shape, induced by the projections of a randomly rotating, labelled ensemble. In particular, we study diffusions of shapes induced by projections of planar triangular configurations of labelled points onto a fixed straight line. That is, we consider the process in Σ13 (the shape space of triads in ℝ) that results from extracting the ‘shape information’ from the projection of a given labelled planar triangle as this evolves under the action of Brownian motion in SO(2). We term the thus-defined diffusions Radon diffusions and derive explicit stochastic differential equations and stationary distributions. The latter belong to the family of angular central Gaussian distributions. In addition, we discuss how these Radon diffusions and their limiting distributions are related to the shape of the initial triangle, and explore whether the relationship is bijective. The triangular case is then used as a basis for the study of processes in Σ1k arising from projections of an arbitrary number, k, of labelled points on the plane. Finally, we discuss the problem of Radon diffusions in the general shape space Σnk.

The paper yields retrieval formulae of the directional distribution of a stationary k-flat process in ℝd if its rose of intersections with all r-flats is known. Cases k = d −1, 1 ≤ r ≤ d - 1 for arbitrary d and d = 4, k = 2, r = 2 are considered. Some generalizations to manifold processes in ℝd are made. The proofs use the methods of harmonic analysis on higher Grassmannians (spherical harmonics, integral transforms).

We define the Radon transform for functions on the set of chambers of affine, locally finite, rank three buildings. We investigate the problem of the inversion of this transform. Explicit inversion formulas are exhibited for functions which fulfill required summability conditions.

In this paper we study some topics of interest to specialists in computer tomography. These are the following. (a) The Radon transform and its applications to computer tomography. (b) Problems of computer tomography with partially known data. Estimates of stability will be given for different types of distance in the space of probability distributions. We consider the problem with partially known tomographic data as a stability problem for appropriately chosen distances. This approach allows us to give a solution of the so-called computer tomography paradox. (c) The relation of quantum mechanics to computer tomography. An intriguing method for ‘measuring' wavefunctions by tomographic methods (CAT scans) opens a new approach to various problems in quantum mechanics. Using the method outlined for the solution of the computer tomography paradox, we derive inequalities that estimate the amount of information on the wavefunctions resulting from real CAT scans, i.e. CAT scans based on the finite number of measured marginals (projections) of the Wigner distributions. In conclusion, we propose a new version of the mathematical justification of CAT scans.