In the mathematical field of integral geometry, the Funk transform (also known as Minkowski–Funk transform, Funk–Radon transform or spherical Radon transform) is an integral transform defined by integrating a function on great circles of the sphere. It was introduced by Paul Funk in 1911, based on the work of Minkowski (1904). It is closely related to the Radon transform. The original motivation for studying the Funk transform was to describe Zoll metrics on the sphere.

Definition

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The Funk transform is defined as follows. Let ƒ be a continuous function on the 2-sphere S2 in R3. Then, for a unit vector x, let

 

where the integral is carried out with respect to the arclength ds of the great circle C(x) consisting of all unit vectors perpendicular to x:

 

Inversion

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The Funk transform annihilates all odd functions, and so it is natural to confine attention to the case when ƒ is even. In that case, the Funk transform takes even (continuous) functions to even continuous functions, and is furthermore invertible.

Spherical harmonics

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Every square-integrable function   on the sphere can be decomposed into spherical harmonics  

 

Then the Funk transform of f reads

 

where   for odd values and

 

for even values. This result was shown by Funk (1913).

Helgason's inversion formula

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Another inversion formula is due to Helgason (1999). As with the Radon transform, the inversion formula relies on the dual transform F* defined by

 

This is the average value of the circle function ƒ over circles of arc distance p from the point x. The inverse transform is given by

 

Generalization

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The classical formulation is invariant under the rotation group SO(3). It is also possible to formulate the Funk transform in a manner that makes it invariant under the special linear group SL(3,R) (Bailey et al. 2003). Suppose that ƒ is a homogeneous function of degree −2 on R3. Then, for linearly independent vectors x and y, define a function φ by the line integral

 

taken over a simple closed curve encircling the origin once. The differential form

 

is closed, which follows by the homogeneity of ƒ. By a change of variables, φ satisfies

 

and so gives a homogeneous function of degree −1 on the exterior square of R3,

 

The function  : Λ2R3 → R agrees with the Funk transform when ƒ is the degree −2 homogeneous extension of a function on the sphere and the projective space associated to Λ2R3 is identified with the space of all circles on the sphere. Alternatively, Λ2R3 can be identified with R3 in an SL(3,R)-invariant manner, and so the Funk transform F maps smooth even homogeneous functions of degree −2 on R3\{0} to smooth even homogeneous functions of degree −1 on R3\{0}.

Applications

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The Funk-Radon transform is used in the Q-Ball method for Diffusion MRI introduced by Tuch (2004). It is also related to intersection bodies in convex geometry. Let   be a star body with radial function    . Then the intersection body IK of K has the radial function   (Gardner 2006, p. 305).

See also

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References

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  • Bailey, T. N.; Eastwood, Michael G.; Gover, A. Rod; Mason, L. J. (2003), "Complex analysis and the Funk transform" (PDF), Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society, 40 (4): 577–593, doi:10.4134/JKMS.2003.40.4.577, MR 1995065, archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03, retrieved 2009-06-19
  • Dann, Susanna (2010), On the Minkowski-Funk Transform, arXiv:1003.5565, Bibcode:2010arXiv1003.5565D
  • Funk, Paul (1913), "Über Flächen mit lauter geschlossenen geodätischen Linien", Mathematische Annalen, 74 (2): 278–300, doi:10.1007/BF01456044.
  • Funk, Paul (1915), "Über eine geometrische Anwendung der Abelschen Integralgleichung", Mathematische Annalen, 77 (1): 129–135, doi:10.1007/BF01456824, MR 1511851.
  • Guillemin, Victor (1976), "The Radon transform on Zoll surfaces", Advances in Mathematics, 22 (1): 85–119, doi:10.1016/0001-8708(76)90139-0, MR 0426063.
  • Helgason, Sigurdur (1999), The Radon transform, Progress in Mathematics, vol. 5 (2nd ed.), Boston, MA: Birkhäuser Boston, ISBN 978-0-8176-4109-2, MR 1723736.
  • Minkowski, Hermann (1904), "About bodies of constant width", Mathematics Sbornik, 25: 505–508
  • Tuch, David S. (2004). "Q-Ball imaging". Magn. Reson. Med. 52 (6): 1358–1372. doi:10.1002/mrm.20279. PMID 15562495.
  • Gardner, Richard J. (2006), Geometric Tomography, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-86680-4