Compactness of Fourier Concentration Operators

Abstract We present a sufficient condition on sets E and F in $${\mathbb R}^d$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>R</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>d</mml:mi> </mml:msup> </mml:math> to ensure compactness of Fourier concentration operators by introducing the notion of sets which are very thin at infinity. We are able to show that if the sets E and F are both very thin at infinity, then the associated Fourier concentration operator is compact on $$L^2({\mathbb R}^d)$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>L</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>R</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>d</mml:mi> </mml:msup> <mml:mo>)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . The proof relies on a combination of the Logvinenko-Sereda uncertainty principle together with an uncertainty principle due to Shubin, Vakilian and Wolff. This provides a partial answer to a question posed by Katsnelson and Machluf on truncated Fourier operators.