Existence of Extremals for a Fourier Restriction Inequality

Abstract: The adjoint Fourier restriction inequality of Tomas and Stein states that the mapping $f\mapsto \widehat{f\sigma}$ is bounded from $\lt(S^2)$ to $L^4(\reals^3)$. We prove that there exist functions which extremize this inequality, and that any extremizing sequence of nonnegative functions has a subsequence which converges to an extremizer.