The 2-circle and 2-disk problems on trees

Abstract

Our purpose here is to consider on a homogeneous tree two Pompeiutype problems which classically have been studied on the plane and on other geometric manifolds. We obtain results which have remarkably the same flavor as classical theorems. Given a homogeneous tree, letd(x, y) be the distance between verticesx andy, and letf be a function on the vertices. For each vertexx and nonnegative integern let Σ _n f(x) be the sum Σ _{d(x, y)=n} f(y) and letB _n f(x)=Σ _{d(x, y)≦n} f(y). The purpose is to study to what extent Σ _n f andB _n f determinef. Since these operators are linear, this is really the study of their kernels. It is easy to find nonzero examples for which Σ _n f orB _n f vanish for one value ofn. What we do here is to study the problem for two values ofn, the 2-circle and the 2-disk problems (in the cases of Σ _n andB _n respectively). We show for which pairs of values there can exist non-zero examples and we classify these examples. We employ the combinatorial techniques useful for studying trees and free groups together with some number theory.