The Fréchet Variation, Sector Limits, and Left Decompositions

1. Introduction. The Fréchet variation of a function g defined over a 2-interval I2 was introduced by Fréchet to enable him to generalize Riesz's theorem on the representation of functionals linear over the space C [7]. Recently the authors have found this variation fundamental in the study of functionals bilinear over the Cartesian product A ⨯ B of two normed linear spaces with certain characteristic properties, and in the further use of this theory in spectral and variational analysis. The recent discovery by the authors of several new properties of the Fréchet variation has made it possible to to give new and natural tests for the convergence of multiple Fourier series generalizing the classical Jordan, de la Vallée Poussin, Dini, Young and Lebesgue tests under considerably less restrictive hypotheses than those now accepted.