The Hilbert Transform of Generalized Functions and Applications

Abstract

The theory of Fourier transforms of tempered distributions as developed by Laurent Schwartz [ 17 ] is quite simple and elegant and has wide variety of applications, but there does not exist a corresponding neat and simple theory for the Hilbert transform of generalized functions (distributions) having wide applications. One of the objectives of this paper is to develop such a theory for the Hilbert transform of generalized functions and indicate its applicability to a variety of problems. In problems of physics sometimes we need to find harmonic functions u ( x , y ) in the region y > 0 whose limit as y → 0+ does not exist in pointwise sense but does exist in the distributional sense. The theory of Hilbert transform of generalized functions that we are going to develop will provide an answer to the existence and uniqueness of this problem.