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I'm reading through Stein & Shakarchi's book on Fourier Analysis on my own, and have a question about the proof of the following theorem: Suppose that $f$ is an integrable function on the circle with $\hat{f}(n)=0$ for all $n \in \mathbb{Z}$. Then $f(\theta_{0})=0$ whenever f is continuous at the point $\theta_{0}$.

They prove the theorem by contradiction - assuming that $f$ satisfies the hypotheses, $\theta_{0}=0$, and $f(0)>0$. They then construct a family of trigonometric polynomials $\{p_{k}\}$ that peak at $0$, resulting in $$\int p_{k}(\theta)f(\theta)\; d\theta \rightarrow \infty \;\; \text{as}\;\; k \rightarrow \infty.$$ Here, the peak functions are constructed in the following manner: Since $f$ is continuous at $0$, we can choose $0 < \delta \leq \pi/2$, so that $f(\theta)>f(0)/2$ whenever $|\theta|< \delta$. Let $p(\theta) = \epsilon + \cos\theta$ where $\epsilon >0$ is chosen so small that $|p(\theta)|< 1-\epsilon/2$, whenever $\delta \leq |\theta| \leq \pi$. Then choose a positive $\eta$ with $\eta < \delta$, so that $p(\theta) \geq 1 + \epsilon/2$, for $|\theta| < \eta$. Finally, we define $p_{k}(\theta) = [p(\theta)]^k$.

It's not exactly clear to me how this gives a contradiction, since the Fourier coefficients of $f$ are given by $$\int f(\theta)e^{-in\theta}\; d\theta.$$ Could someone explain how the first integral implies there is a nonzero Fourier coefficient?

Ben Perez
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  • What is exactly the form of $p_k$? – Euler....IS_ALIVE Mar 24 '14 at 00:51
  • Stein is really not a good teacher. Choose $p(x) = \cos(x-a)+1 = 1+\frac{e^{ia}}{2}e^{ix}+\frac{e^{-ia}}{2}e^{-ix}$. Then $p(x)^k$ has a peak at $x=a$ and $\lim_{k \to \infty} \int_{-\pi}^\pi f(x) p(x)^k dx = \infty$ whenever $f(x) > 0$ around $x=a$. – reuns Feb 01 '17 at 00:25
  • Note sure, #reuns: what happens to the effect of powers of $(x-a)$ when $|x-a|$ is close to $\pi$? Maybe we need $\cos(x-a)+K$ with a large positive $K$, which may have to depend on the function $f$? But then the Stein argument may not look so fiddly anymore. – Máté Wierdl Apr 18 '20 at 22:05

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If the Fourier coefficients of f are all 0 then the integral of f multiplied by any trigonometric polynomial is 0. This follows by just taking linear combinations.