Paley-Wiener Theorems with respect to the spectral parameter

Abstract: One of the important questions related to any integral transform on a manifold M or on a homogeneous space G/K is the description of the image of a given space of functions. If M=G/K, where (G,K) is a Gelfand pair, then the harmonic analysis is closely related to the representations of G and the direct integral decomposition of L^2(M) into irreducible representations. We give a short overview of the Fourier transform on such spaces and then ask if one can describe the image of the space of smooth compactly supported functions in terms of the spectral parameter, i.e., the parameterization of the set of irreducible representations in the support of the Plancherel measure for L^2(M). We then discuss the Euclidean motion group, semisimple symmetric spaces, and some limits of those spaces.