Poisson summation formula
Let be an integrable function and let
be its Fourier transform
![]()
. The Poisson summation formula is the assertion that
| (1) |
whenever is such that both of the above infinite sums areabsolutely convergent.
Equation (1) is useful because it establishes acorrespondence between Fourier series![]()
and Fourier integrals. To seethe connection, let
be the periodicfunction obtained by pseudo-averaging11This terminology is at best a metaphor. The operation in question is not a genuine mean, in the technical sense of that word. relative to actingas the discrete group of translations on . Since wasassumed to be integrable, is defined almost everywhere, and isintegrable over with
Since is integrable, we may interchange integration and summationto obtain
for every . In other words, the restriction of the Fouriertransform of to the integers gives the Fourier coefficients of theaveraged, periodic function . Since we have assumed that the form an absolutely convergent series, we have that
in the sense ofuniform convergence![]()
. Evaluating the above equation at , weobtain the Poisson summation formula (1).