Abstract. Representations of the celebrated Heisenberg commutation relations in quantum mechanics (and their exponentiated versions) form the starting point for a number of basic constructions, both in mathematics and mathematical physics (geometric quantization, quantum tori, classical and quantum theta functions) and signal analysis (Gabor analysis). In this paper we will try to bridge the two com-munities, represented by the two co–authors: that of noncommutative geometry and that of signal analysis. After providing a brief comparative dictionary of the two languages, we will show e.g. that the Janssen representation of Gabor frames with generalized Gaussians as Gabor atoms yields in a natural way quantum theta functions, and that the Rieffel scalar product and associativity relations underlie both the functional equations for quantum thetas and the Fundamental Identity of Gabor analysis. §0. Introduction. Gabor analysis is a modern branch of signal analysis with various applications to pseudodifferential operators, harmonic analysis, function spaces, approximation
This thesis addresses aspects of quantum phase and sets out to draw attention to a collection of new and extend some not so new techniques utilizing Weyl's correspondence rule and its inverse. The phase formulation of quantum mechanics is as old as quantum mechanics itself and evolved over a period of two decades due to the contributions of H. Weyl \cite{Weyl1950}, E. P. Wigner \cite{Wigner1932}, H. Groenewold \cite{Groenewold1946} and J. E. Moyal \cite{Moyal1949}. Over the ensuing years the phase picture has matured into a practical analytical tool, and has generated a multitude of technical papers, reports, reviews, and expositions from many authors and commentators. One reason for its success is that it offers an intuitive picture of quantum mechanics owing to its \it{classical look and feel}, and it has made an impression, in one way or another, in many fields such as mathematical physics, quantum optics, and physical chemistry.The thesis opens with a brief history of classical phase space, tracing the possible origin of the term ``phase space itself, and chronicles the events leading to the conceptualization (and generalization) of quantum phase space. In Chapter 2 the Weyl correspondence is recast in terms of von Neumann's integral kernel transform and a heuristic analysis is given from this perspective. A characteristic of Weyl's correspondence rule and its inverse is that there are two inherent representations of the same operator. These have been referred to as the Weyl representation and Wigner representation and are related by a symplectic Fourier transform. For an arbitrary outer dyadic operator it is shown that the Weyl representation leads to the \it{modified} Gabor transform (known to Signal Processing), while the Wigner representation specializes to the Bargmann transform and a representation in terms of analytic functions. Calculating Weyl-Wigner (WW) transforms of products of
n operators, from first principles, has proved to be a technically difficult problem. However, with the machinery developed in Chapter 2 the problem is reduced to a straightforward algebraic exercise. Finally, forming an
s-parametrized generalization of Weyl's correspondence rule and focusing on the Weyl representation it is shown to lead to an intimate relationship with the relative state formalism \cite{Ban1998}. Weyl's correspondence rule is only applicable to operators and consequently state vectors
∣ψ⟩ are not represented in the usual formulation of quantum phase space. This problem is circumvented in Chapter 3 by introducing the notion of a normalized fixed state (or window) vector
∣φ0⟩ to form an outer dyadic product $\wh{\Psi} = |\psi\rangle\langle\varphi_0|$. The WW transform of this product under the action of the Weyl's rule is a complex valued function of real variables called a phase amplitude and denoted by the symbol
Ψ. The phase amplitudes have many (and sometimes surprising) properties. For example they: \begin{itemize} \item form the building blocks of Wigner functions
W by admitting a generalized Born rule
W=Ψ⋆Ψˉ, and as such can be considered to be a more fundamental objects than Wigner functions; \item superpose and interfere like the state vectors they represent; \item specialize to the Bargmann and Gabor transforms when a Gaussian window is chosen; \end{itemize} \ni In Chapter 4 further aspects of phase amplitudes are explored and discussed. For example it is shown that they: \begin{itemize} \item define phase state vectors which form an over complete set and are elements of a reproducing kernel Hilbert space; \item allow unitary ray representations of the group symmetries of translation, rotation and time reversal; \item evolve in phase under the influence of a propagator
R which is intimately related to the Wigner propagator
P. \end{itemize} Chapter 5 considers an extension of phase amplitudes to include systems with finitely many degrees of freedom. These are called spin amplitudes and are obtained by first forming the outer dyadic product of a spin state vector with an arbitrary fixed spin state vector, and then applying a finite-dimensional analogue of the WW transform. The spin amplitude operator is represented as an
n×n matrix, whose elements are products of the spin components of the spin and fixed state vectors. Two kinds of spin amplitudes are considered, arising on the sphere
S2 or on a
(2j+1) dimensional lattice. In the special case of spin-$\half$ systems it is shown that the spin amplitudes transform as spinors under rotations on both the sphere and lattice. As a physical application the spin amplitudes for a spin-$\half$ magnetic dipole are found for a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) environment. Chapter 6 considers Schwinger's abstract approach to quantum mechanics which takes into account the inability to indefinitely compensate for fluctuations in the measurement process. The resulting measurement algebra provides a symbolic representation of the physical laws as opposed to the mathematical abstraction (of von Neumann and Dirac) that was justified \it{\'a posteriori} by being in agreement with experiment. Despite Schwinger's prolific work on the subject of measurement algebra, its interpretation in quantum phase remained an open issue. It is shown that the key to formulating a quantum phase in terms of the measurement operators and transformation functions is the determination of a suitable set of basis operators for an arbitrary measurement operator. Many new results follow as a consequence of expanding an arbitrary measurement operator in this basis. In Chapter 7 the quantum-classical interface is explored by considering Hamilton's principal function or action
S(q,v,t). Starting from a purely heuristic classical argument, a phase function
U(p,q,t) is derived in terms of the classical action and is shown to be proportional to the WW transform of the quantum evolution operator. This association leads to the transform \be U(p,q,t) = A(t) \int e^{ipv/\hbar} e^{iS(q,v,t)/\hbar} \; \rm{d}v, \ee which enables one, in principle, to deduce the Wigner functions of a given system when only the classical action is known. Simple physical systems are used to provide examples illustrating this approach.
In this second in a series of four articles we create a mathematical formalism sufficient to represent nontrivial hamiltonian quantum dynamics, including resonances. Some parts of this construction are also mathematically necessary. The specific construction is the transforming of a pair of quantized free oscillators into a resonant system of coupled oscillators by analytic continuation which is performed algebraically by the group of complex symplectic transformations, thereby creating dynamical representations of numerous semi-groups. The quantum free oscillators are the quantum analogue of classical action angle variable solutions for the coupled oscillators and quantum resonances, including Breit-Wigner resonances. Among the exponentially decaying Breit-Wigner resonances represented by Gamow vectors are hamiltonian systems in which energy transfers from one oscillator to the other. There are significant mathematical constraints in order that complex spectra be accommodated in a well defined formalism which represents dynamics, and these may be met by using the commutative real algebra $\C (1,i)$ as the ring of scalars in place of the field of complex numbers. These mathematical constraints compel use of fundamental (spinor) representations rather than UIR's. By including distributional solutions to the Schr{ö}dinger equation, placing us in a rigged Hilbert space, and by using the Hamiltonian as a generator of canonical transformation of the space of states, the Schr{ö}dinger equation is the equation for parallel transport of generalized energy eigenvectors, explicitly establishing the Hamiltonian as the generator of dynamical time translations in this formalism.
The Weyl–Heisenberg symmetries originate from translation invariances of various manifolds viewed as phase spaces, e.g. Euclidean plane, semi-discrete cylinder, torus, in the two-dimensional case, and higher-dimensional generalizations. In this paper, we describe, on an elementary level, how this symmetry emerges through displacement operators and standard Fourier analysis, and how their unitary representations are used both in Signal Analysis (time–frequency techniques, Gabor transform) and in quantum formalism (covariant integral quantizations and semi-classical portraits). An example of application of the formalism to the Majorana stellar constellation in the plane is presented.
This paper is devoted to the construction and analysis of the Wigner functions for noncommutative quantum mechanics, their marginal distributions, and star-products, following a technique developed earlier, viz, using the unitary irreducible representations of the group GNC, which is the three fold central extension of the Abelian group of ℝ4. These representations have been exhaustively studied in earlier papers. The group GNC is identified with the kinematical symmetry group of noncommutative quantum mechanics of a system with two degrees of freedom. The Wigner functions studied here reflect different levels of non-commutativity—both the operators of position and those of momentum not commuting, the position operators not commuting and finally, the case of standard quantum mechanics, obeying the canonical commutation relations only.
The description of a signal by means of a local frequency spec-trum resembles such things as the score in music, the phase space in mechanics, and the ray concept in geometrical optics. Two types of local frequency spectra are presented: the Wigner distribution function and the sliding-window spectrum, the latter having the form of a cross-ambiguity function. The Wigner distribution function in particular can provide a link between Fourier optics and geometrical optics; many properties of the Wigner distribution function, and the way in which it prop-agates through linear systems, can be interpreted in geometric-optical terms. The Wigner distribution function is linearly related to other signal representations like Woodward's ambiguity function, Rihaczek's complex energy density function, and Mark's physical spectrum. An advantage of the Wigner distribution function and its related signal representations is that they can be applied not only to deterministic signals but to stochastic signals as well, leading to such things as Walther's generalized radiance and Sudarshan's Wolf tensor. On the other hand, the sliding-window spectrum has the advantage that a sampling theorem can be formulated for it: the sliding-window spectrum is completely determined by its values at the points of a certain space-frequency lattice, which is exactly the lattice suggested by Gabor in 1946. The sliding-window spectrum thus leads naturally to Gabor's expansion of a signal into a discrete set of properly shifted and modulated versions of an elementary signal, which is again another space-frequency signal representation, and which is related to the degrees of freedom of the signal.