The Nikolskii constant in odd dimensions

Abstract

Let $\varphi_{d}(|{\,\cdot\,}|)$ be the radial extremal function in the problem for the sharp Nikolskii constant $\mathcal C_d^{-1}=\inf \|f\|_{1}$ over functions $f\in\mathit{PW}\,_{1}^{1}(\mathbb R^{d})$, $f(0)=1$. For every odd dimension, we construct an entire function $\Phi$ of exponential type $1/2$ such that $\varphi_d(z)=\Phi(z)\Phi(-z)$, and $\Phi$ satisfies a quadratic functional equation and a second-order linear differential equation with polynomial coefficients. Thus, the problem of finding the extremal function is reduced to a spectral problem with finitely many parameters. This result extends a recent one-dimensional result, but uses a different method. For example, in dimension $d=3$ it leads to a seven-diagonal spectral scheme that allows us to compute $\mathcal C_3$ to high accuracy. Even dimensions remain open within this approach.