On the uncertainty product of spherical functions

Abstract

The uncertainty product of a function is a quantity that measures the trade-off between the space and the frequency localization of the function. Its boundedness from below is the content of various uncertainty principles. In the present paper, functions over the n-dimensional sphere are considered. A formula is derived that expresses the uncertainty product of a continuous function in terms of its Fourier coefficients. It is applied to a directional derivative of a zonal wavelet, and the behavior of the uncertainty product of this function is discussed.