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).