Optimal constants and extremisers for some smoothing estimates

Abstract

We establish new results concerning the existence of extremisers for a broad class of smoothing estimates of the form $\|\psi(|\nabla|) \exp(it\phi(|\nabla|)f \|_{L^2(w)} \leq C\|f\|_{L^2}$, where the weight $w$ is radial and depends only on the spatial variable; such a smoothing estimate is of course equivalent to the $L^2$-boundedness of a certain oscillatory integral operator $S$ depending on $(w,\psi,\phi)$. Furthermore, when $w$ is homogeneous, and for certain $(\psi,\phi)$, we provide an explicit spectral decomposition of $S^*S$ and consequently recover an explicit formula for the optimal constant $C$ and a characterisation of extremisers. In certain well-studied cases when $w$ is inhomogeneous, we obtain new expressions for the optimal constant.