Notes on the Finite Fourier Transform Peter Woit Department of Mathematics, Columbia University
[email protected] April 28, 2020 1 Introduction In this final section of the course we'll discuss a topic which is in some sense much simpler than the cases of Fourier series for functions on S1 and the Fourier transform for functions on R, since it will involve functions on a finite set, and thus just algebra and no need for the complexities of analysis. This topic has important applications in the approximate computation of Fourier series (which we won't cover), and in number theory (which we'll say a little bit about). 2 The group Z(N) What we'll be doing is simplifying the topic of Fourier series by replacing the multiplicative group S1 = fz 2 C : jzj = 1g by the finite subgroup Z(N) = fz 2 C : zN = 1g If we write z = reiθ, then zN = 1 =) rN eiθN = 1 =) r = 1; θN = k2π (k 2 Z) k =) θ = 2π k = 0; 1; 2; ··· ;N − 1 N mod 2π The group Z(N) is thus explicitly given by the set i 2π i2 2π i(N−1) 2π Z(N) = f1; e N ; e N ; ··· ; e N g Geometrically, these are the points on the unit circle one gets by starting at 1 2π and dividing it into N sectors with equal angles N . (Draw a picture, N = 6) The set Z(N) is a group, with 1 identity element 1 (k = 0) inverse 2πi k −1 −2πi k 2πi (N−k) (e N ) = e N = e N multiplication law ik 2π il 2π i(k+l) 2π e N e N = e N One can equally well write this group as the additive group (Z=NZ; +) of inte- gers mod N, with isomorphism Z(N) $ Z=NZ ik 2π e N $ [k]N 1 $ [0]N −ik 2π e N $ −[k]N = [−k]N = [N − k]N 3 Fourier analysis on Z(N) An abstract point of view on the theory of Fourier series is that it is based on exploiting the existence of a particular othonormal basis of functions on the group S1 that are eigenfunctions of the linear transformations given by rotations.