Periodicity of the spectrum in dimension one

Alex Iosevich, Mihail N. Kolountzakis

Published 2011-08-29, updated 2012-02-21Version 2

A bounded measurable set $\Omega$, of Lebesgue measure 1, in the real line is called spectral if there is a set $\Lambda$ of real numbers ("frequencies") such that the exponential functions $e_\lambda(x) = \exp(2\pi i \lambda x)$, $\lambda\in\Lambda$, form a complete orthonormal system of $L^2(\Omega)$. Such a set $\Lambda$ is called a {\em spectrum} of $\Omega$. In this note we prove that any spectrum $\Lambda$ of a bounded measurable set $\Omega\subseteq\RR$ must be periodic.