  We propose a new approach to the Fourier restriction conjectures. It is based
on a discretization of the Fourier extension operators in terms of
quadratically modulated wave packets. Using this new point of view, and by
combining natural scalar and mixed norm quantities from appropriate level sets,
we prove that all the $L^{2}$-based $k$-linear extension conjectures are true
up to the endpoint for every $1 \leq k \leq d+1$ if one of the functions
involved is a full tensor. We also introduce the concept of \textit{weak
transversality}, under which we show that all conjectured $L^{2}$-based
multilinear extension estimates are still true up to the endpoint provided that
one of the functions involved has a weaker tensor structure, and we prove that
this result is sharp. Under additional tensor hypotheses, we show that one can
improve the conjectured threshold of these problems in some cases. In general,
the largely unknown multilinear extension theory beyond $L^{2}$ inputs remains
open even in the bilinear case; with this new point of view, and still under
the previous tensor hypothesis, we obtain the near-restriction target for the
$k$-linear extension operator if the inputs are in a certain $L^{p}$ space for
$p$ sufficiently large. The proof of this result is adapted to show that the
$k$-fold product of linear extension operators (no transversality assumed) also
``maps near restriction" if one input is a tensor. Finally, we exploit the
connection between the geometric features behind the results of this paper and
the theory of Brascamp-Lieb inequalities, which allows us to verify a special
case of a conjecture by Bennett, Bez, Flock and Lee.
