TITLE: How does the spherical Laplacian commute with the euclidean convolution?
QUESTION [7 upvotes]: INTRODUCTION.
It is a standard and well-known property that for smooth, compactly supported $f, g\colon \mathbb R^d\to \mathbb R$, the euclidean Laplacian
$$\tag{1}\Delta=\sum_{j=1}^d \frac{\partial^2}{\partial x_j^2}$$ commutes with the convolution
$$
f\ast g(x):=\int_{\mathbb R^d} f(x-y)g(y)\, dy. $$
We can rephrase this in terms of the linear operator
$$\tag{2}
T_g f:=f\ast g; $$
indeed, the aforementioned property is equivalent to the vanishing of the commutator
$$
[T_g, \Delta]=T_g\Delta - \Delta T_g=0.
$$

THE QUESTION.
Let us define the spherical Laplacian $\Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}$ via the formula
$$
\frac{1}{r^2}\Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}f := \Delta f - \frac{1}{r^{d-1}}\frac{\partial}{\partial r}\left(r^{d-1}\frac{\partial f}{\partial r}\right),$$
where $r=\lvert x \rvert$ denotes the radial coordinate of $\mathbb R^d$.   $^{[1]}$

Big Question. Can you compute the commutator $[T_g, \Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}]\ ?$

This question is probably quite ambitious, and I would already be happy with some partial answer. For example,

Baby Question. Can you compute $[T_g, \Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}]$ in the case $$g(x)=\phi(r)H_n(x),$$ where $\phi$ is smooth and compactly supported and $H_n$ is a homogeneous harmonic polynomial of degree $n$? If the general case is too hard, can you compute the commutator for small values of $n$, say $n\in \{0, 1, 2\}$?


SOME THOUGHTS.
If $g$ is radial, then $[T_g, \Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}]=0$. This answers the Baby Question for $n=0$.
To prove this, we note that the radial symmetry of $g$ implies that
$$\tag{3}
T_g(f\circ R)=(T_g f)\circ R,\qquad \forall R\in SO(d).$$
In turn, this implies the following commutation;
$$\tag{4}
[T_g, Z_{ij}]=0,\qquad \text{where } Z_{ij}:=x_i\partial_{x_j}-x_j\partial_{x_i}, $$
and $1\le i<j\le n$. To prove (4), we observe that the operators $Z_{ij}$ are infinitesimal rotations in the following sense. We let
$$
R_{12}(\theta):=\begin{bmatrix} \cos \theta & -\sin\theta & 0 & 0 & \ldots & 0 \\ 
\sin \theta & \cos \theta & 0 & 0 & \ldots & 0 \\ 
0 & 0 & 1 & 0 &\ldots & 0 \\ 
0 & 0& 0 & 1 & \ldots & 0 \\ 
\ldots & \ldots & \ldots & \ldots & \ldots& \ldots \\ 
0 & 0 & 0 & \ldots & 0 & 1\end{bmatrix}, $$
observing that $R_{12}(\theta)\in SO(d)$. We have the differential relation
$$
\left.\frac{\partial}{\partial \theta}f\left( R_{12}(\theta)x\right) \right|_{\theta=0}= Z_{12} f(x),$$
and similarly for the other operators $Z_{ij}$. So (3) implies (4) by differentiation.
Now, the property (4) implies $[T_g, \Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}]=0$, because
$$
\Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}=\sum_{1\le i<j\le d} Z_{ij}^2. $$
(We remark that this last formula is the spherical analogue of (1)).

PERSPECTIVES.
The previous section shows that the knowledge of the commutators (4) gives  $[T_g, \Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}]$. Indeed, assuming that
$$
[T_g, Z_{ij}]=C_{ij}, $$
it holds that
$$
[T_g, \Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}]=\left[T_g, \sum Z_{ij}^2\right]=\sum_{1\le i<j\le d}\left( C_{ij}Z_{ij}^2 + Z_{ij}C_{ij}Z_{ij}\right).$$
Can these $C_{ij}$ be explicitly computed, at least for $g$ of the form $g_0(r)H_n(x)$, as in the Baby Question?

[1] This operator is often known as the Laplace-Beltrami operator.

REPLY [2 votes]: The problem turned out to have a simpler solution than I expected. It is  a consequence of the following proposition.
Main Proposition. For all smooth and compactly supported $f, g$,
$$\tag{1}\Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}} (f \ast g) = (\Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}} f) \ast g +2 \sum_{1\le i<j\le d} Z_{ij}f\ast Z_{ij}g + f \ast \Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}g.$$
Remark. Essentially, the algebra behind this is the same as the one of the usual formula
$$
\frac{d^2}{dx^2}( t(x)s(x))= \frac{d^2 t}{dx^2} s  +  2\frac{dt}{dx}\frac{ds}{dx}+t\frac{d^2 s}{dx^2} .$$
Proof of the Main Proposition. As observed in the main question, the spherical derivative $Z_{ij}$ satisfies
$$
Z_{ij} (f\ast g)(x)=\lim_{\epsilon\to 0} \frac1{\epsilon} \int_{\mathbb R^d} \left[ f(R_{ij}(\epsilon)x -y)g(y) -f(x-y)g(y)\right]\, dy.$$
We claim that this implies the Leibniz formula
$$\tag{2}
Z_{ij}(f\ast g)=(Z_{ij}f)\ast g + f\ast Z_{ij}g. $$
Indeed,
$$
\begin{split}
&\frac1\epsilon \left(f\ast g(R_{ij}(\epsilon)x)-f\ast g(x)\right) = \frac1\epsilon \int_{\mathbb R^d} f(R_{ij}(\epsilon)x-y)g(y)-f(x-y)g(y)\, dy \\ 
&=\frac1\epsilon\int_{\mathbb R^d} f(R_{ij}(\epsilon)(x-y))g(R_{ij}(\epsilon)y) - f(x-y)g(y)\,dy \\
&= \frac1\epsilon\int_{\mathbb R^d} f(R_{ij}(\epsilon)(x-y))g(R_{ij}(\epsilon)y) - f(x-y)g(R_{ij}(\epsilon)y) +f(x-y)g(R_{ij}(\epsilon)y) -f(x-y)g(y)\, dy\\
&=\frac1\epsilon\int_{\mathbb R^d} \left( f(R_{ij}(\epsilon)(x-y))-f(x-y)\right)g(R_{ij}(\epsilon)y) + f(x-y)\left( g(R_{ij}(\epsilon)y)-g(y)\right)\, dy \\ 
&=\frac1\epsilon \left(f(R_{ij}(\epsilon)\cdot) \ast g - f\ast g\right) +\frac1\epsilon \left( f\ast g(R_{ij}(\epsilon)\cdot) -f\ast g\right)\to Z_{ij}f\ast g + f\ast Z_{ij}g.
\end{split}
$$
Sorry for the long set of equations; it looks terrible, but it actually is only a straightforward adaptation of the proof of the usual Leibniz formula for the one-dimensional derivative $\frac{d}{dx}$.
Once (2) is proved, (1) immediately follows from
$$
\Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}=\sum_{1\le i<j\le d} Z_{ij}^2.\quad \Box$$
Now that the Main Proposition is proved, the commutator can be computed as
$$\begin{split}
[T_g, \Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}]f
&=\Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}f\ast g -\Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}(f\ast g) \\
&=-2\sum_{1\le i<j\le d} Z_{ij}f\ast Z_{ij}g -f\ast \Delta_{\mathbb S^{d-1}}g.
\end{split}
$$
This answers the "Big Question".