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In the paper A problem on completeness of exponentials (Annals of Mathematics 178 (2013), 983-1016), the author A. Poltoratski studies the following problem:

Let $\mu$ be a finite positive measure on $\mathbb{R}.$ For $a>0$, let $$ \mathcal{E}_a = \{ e^{ist} : s \in [0,a] \} $$ be the set of exponentials with frequencies in the interval $[0,a]$. The paper studies the question for which minimal $a>0$ is the linear span of $\mathcal{E}_a$ dense in $L^p(\mu)$.

At the moment I'm trying to make use of a certain density of exponentials in $L^p(\mu)$. In fact I'm serching for results on a weaker form of the above problem:

Let $\mu$ be a finite positive measure on $\mathbb{R}$ and $p \in [1,\infty]$. Which conditions on $\mu$ and $p$ imply that the set of exponentials $$\mathcal{E} = \{ e^{ist} : s \in \mathbb{R} \}$$ is complete $L^p(\mu)$?

In this problem, the values $s$ can be chosen from whole $\mathbb{R}$ and not just from a finite interval. I think major difficulty should be for $p \neq 2$ and $p \neq 1$. Are there papers dealing with this kind of question?

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    $\begingroup$ I feel like I'm missing something, but if $f\perp e^{isx}$ in $L^2(\mu)$ for all $s$ then $g = fd\mu \in \mathcal{S}'$ satisfies $\hat{g} = 0$ which implies that $g = 0$. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 13:12

2 Answers 2

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In fact, this is true for every $\mu$ and every $1 \le p < \infty$. It's a pretty standard "textbook" fact, which is probably why you're not finding papers that discuss it.

One possible way to prove it is following Aleksei Kulikov's hint. Suppose they were not dense. Then by Hahn-Banach and the $L^p$-$L^q$ duality, there would exist some nonzero $f \in L^q(\mu)$, where $\frac{1}{p}+\frac{1}{q}=1$, such that $\int f(x) e^{isx}\,\mu(dx) = 0$ for all $s$. Now let $d\nu = f\,d\mu$, noting that $f \in L^q \subset L^1$ so that $\nu$ is a finite signed measure, and we have $\int e^{isx}\,\nu(dx) = 0$ for all $s$, which is to say that the Fourier transform of $\nu$ is identically zero. But a measure (or distribution) with a vanishing Fourier transform can only be zero; this fact will be in any basic Fourier theory text. Thus the complex exponentials are indeed dense in $L^p(\mu)$, and we assumed nothing about $\mu$.

When $p=\infty$, this is false for practically all interesting measures $\mu$. For instance:

  • It is false if the support of $\mu$ is a set with a limit point. For if so, then we may find a sequence $x_n$ in the support of $\mu$ which converges to some $x$. We can then inductively choose open sets $U_n$ which are pairwise disjoint, have $x_n \in U_n$, and have diameters shrinking to 0. Consider the function $f = \sum_k 1_{U_{2k}}$ which takes the value 1 on all the even-numbered $U_n$ and is 0 elsewhere. If $g$ is any function with $\|f-g\|_{L^\infty(\mu)} < 1/4$, then since each $U_n$ has positive measure, it must contain a point $y_n$ with $|f(y_n) - g(y_n)| < 1/4$, which is to say $g(y_n) > 3/4$ for even $n$, and $g(y_n) < 1/4$ for odd $n$. But the $y_n$ converge to $x$, so such $g$ cannot be continuous, and in particular it cannot be a finite sum of complex exponentials.

  • It is false if the support of $\mu$ is a countable set whose pairwise distances are not bounded away from 0 (e.g. the set $\{\sqrt{n} : n \in \mathbb{N}\}$). Any $\mu$ with countable support is atomic, so this means we can find distinct points $(x_n, y_n)$, all having positive measure, and with $|x_n - y_n| \to 0$. Let $f$ take the value 1 on all the $x_n$ and 0 on all the $y_n$. Now if $g$ is a finite sum of complex exponentials, then it is Lipschitz with some constant $M$, and so if $n > 2M$, we have $|g(x_n) - g(y_n)| < M/n < 1/2$. This forces either $|f(x_n) - g(x_n)| > 1/2$ or $|f(y_n) - g(y_n)| > 1/2$, and so $\|f-g\|_{L^\infty(\mu)} > 1/2$.

This leaves measures whose support set is something like $\mathbb{N}$ (it is obviously true for measures whose support is finite). For instance, are the complex exponentials are dense in $\ell^\infty$? I don't know the answer to that question.

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you very much for your answer! Could you give me a reference in which books I can find such kind of theorems? $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 15:21
  • $\begingroup$ @LksRheil: If you are interested in the Fourier-analytic part, one reference is "Probability theory" by Bauer. I only have the German version right now, but there the precise statement you want is Theorem 23.4. $\endgroup$
    – PhoemueX
    Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 19:54
  • $\begingroup$ It's obvious that the uniform closure of the exponentials contains only continuous functions, but is it obvious that the $\mu$-a.e. uniform closure of the exponentials contains only continuous functions? $\endgroup$
    – LSpice
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 0:30
  • $\begingroup$ @LksRheil: I am unfortunately away from my bookshelf, so I can't say for sure what books would have it. But the Fourier transform fact would be everywhere (e.g. Folland's Real Analysis) and the rest is at the level of an exercise. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 3:36
  • $\begingroup$ @LSpice: What is true is that if $f_n$ are continuous and converge in $L^\infty(\mu)$ to a function $g$, then $g$ is $\mu$-a.e. equal to a function whose restriction to the support of $\mu$ is continuous. (And by Tietze, it is thus also $\mu$-a.e. equal to a function which is continuous everywhere.) But I updated my answer to be more explicit - the claim I had before wasn't quite right. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 4:39
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This question has already been answered so the following is intended as a comment to suggest a proof which has the advantage (?) of not requiring the Fourier transform but I don't have that privilege. If the measure is supported in a compact interval, then, by the Stone-Weierstraß theorem, the system you describe is uniformly dense in the space of continuous functions and the latter is dense in the corresponding $L^p$-spaces. The general case can be reduced to this one by a standard truncation argument.

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  • $\begingroup$ Density of continuous functions in $\operatorname L^p$ probably requires some hypothesis on the measure—regularity?—not just that it is finite and positive, right? $\endgroup$
    – LSpice
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 0:31
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    $\begingroup$ @LSpice: Every finite Borel measure on $\mathbb{R}$ (or any Polish space) is Radon, which is all the regularity you need. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 3:09
  • $\begingroup$ As to this answer: Yes, certainly that works. And this is in fact the essential argument in the usual proof that the Fourier transform is injective, just without saying the words "Fourier transform". $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 3:32

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