[Math] Interpretation of Poisson Summation Formula

fourier analysisnumber theory

This question arises from a Fourier transform class I took about a year back.

The poisson summation formula is:

$$\displaystyle \sum_{n= – \infty}^{\infty} f(n) = \displaystyle \sum_{k= – \infty}^{\infty} \hat{f}(k)$$

where $\hat{f}$ is the Fourier Transform of $f(x)$.

It is interesting since this is true for all $f(x)$ for which we can define Fourier transform.

Is there a nice (probably physical) interpretation for this?

I am wondering if this characterizes some property which is invariant, some sort of conservation.

For instance, if we consider Parseval's theorem, one interpretation of it is that the total energy across all time is the total energy across all of its frequency components.

Also, from a mathematical standpoint what does this mean? Is this a manifestation of some property of integers?

Best Answer

The formula is not about the integers in the sense that it doesn't involve their multiplicative structure; rather, it's about how the integers sit inside the reals as a discrete subgroup. You can see this in the way the formula generalizes to $\mathbb{Z}^n$ sitting inside $\mathbb{R}^n$ or more generally in how it generalizes to the Selberg trace formula. The trace formula makes it clear that Poisson summation is a representation-theoretic fact; indeed one of its special cases is Frobenius reciprocity.

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