On kernel engineering via Paley–Wiener

A radial basis function approximation takes the form $$s(x)=\sum_{k=1}^na_k\phi(x-b_k),\quad x\in {\mathbb{R}}^d,$$ where the coefficients a 1,…,a n are real numbers, the centres b 1,…,b n are distinct points in ℝ d , and the function φ:ℝ d →ℝ is radially symmetric. Such functions are highly useful in practice and enjoy many beautiful theoretical properties. In particular, much work has been devoted to the polyharmonic radial basis functions, for which φ is the fundamental solution of some iterate of the Laplacian. In this note, we consider the construction of a rotation-invariant signed (Borel) measure μ for which the convolution ψ=μ φ is a function of compact support, and when φ is polyharmonic. The novelty of this construction is its use of the Paley–Wiener theorem to identify compact support via analysis of the Fourier transform of the new kernel ψ, so providing a new form of kernel engineering