THE FOURIER, HILBERT, AND MELLIN TRANSFORMS ON A HALF-LINE

We are interested in the singular behavior at the origin of solutions to the equation H \rho = e on a half-axis, where H is the one-sided Hilbert transform, \rho an unknown solution, and e a known function. This is a simpler model problem on the path to understanding wave field singularities caused by curve-shaped scatterers in a planar domain. We prove that \rho has a singularity of the form M [e](1/2)/\surdt, where M is the Mellin transform. To do this, we use specially built function spaces M'(a, b) by Zemanian, and these allow us to precisely investigate the relationship between the Mellin and Hilbert transforms. Fourier comes into play in the sense that the Mellin transform is simpy the Fourier transform on the locally compact Abelian multiplicative group of the half-line, and as a more familiar operator, it guides our investigation.