Say that a polynomial with real coefficients in two variables, , is \emph{balanced} if
the average value of the polynomial on each circle centered at the origin is .
The balanced polynomials of degree at most form a vector space over .
Find the dimension of .
Solution
Any polynomial of degree at most can be written uniquely
as a sum in which is a homogeneous
polynomial of degree .
For , let be the path
for . Put ; then
for ,
For fixed , the right side is a polynomial in , which vanishes for
all if and only if its coefficients vanish.
In other words,
is balanced
if and only if for .
For odd, we have .
Hence , e.g.,
because the contributions to the integral from
and cancel.
For even, is a linear function of the coefficients of
. This function is not identically zero, e.g., because for $P_i =
(x^2 + y^2)^{i/2}$, the integrand is always positive and so
. The kernel of on the space of homogeneous
polynomials of degree is thus a subspace of codimension 1.
It follows that the dimension of is
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