Singular numbers of smooth kernels

Abstract

In [12] we elaborate the vague principle that the behaviour at infinity of the decreasing sequence of singular numbers sn(K) of a Hilbert–Schmidt kernel K is at least as good as that of the sequence {n−1/qω(n−1;K)}, where ωp is an Lp-modulus of continuity of K and q = p/(p − 1), where 1 ≤ p ≤ 2. Despite the author's effort to justify his study of refinements of the half-century old theorem of Smithies [13], that theorem remains the central result of the subject (viz. that for 0 < a ≤ 1, K∈Lip(a, p) implies that sn(K) = O(n−α−1/q)). For example, Cochran's omnibus theorems [5, 6] that delimit the Schatten classes to which a kernel belongs are based on the blending of ‘smoothness’ conditions and emphasize the pivotal role of the principal corollary of Smithies' theorem (viz. {sn}∈lr if r−1 < α + q−1). Cochran later offered in [7] a very simple derivation of the corollary from a Fourier series theorem of Konyushkov (see [2], vol. II, p. 197), whose proof was, however, at least as intricate as Smithies' demonstration.