Strictly positive definite kernels on two-point compact homogeneous spaces

Abstract: We present a necessary and sufficient condition for the strict positive definiteness of a real, continuous, isotropic and positive definite kernel on a two-point compact homogeneous space. The characterization adds to others previously obtained by D. Chen at all (2003) in the case in which the space is a sphere of dimension at least 2 and Menegatto at all (2006) in the case in which the space is the unit circle. As an application, we use the characterization to improve upon a recent result on the differentiability of positive definite kernels on the spaces.