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arXiv:1611.07442 · SIAM Journal on Mathematical Analysis

On the Symplectic Covariance and Interferences of Time-Frequency Distributions

Elena Cordero, Maurice A. de Gosson, Monika Dörfler, Fabio Nicola

Published Jan 1, 2018• 22 citations

Abstract

We study the covariance property of quadratic time-frequency distributions with respect to the action of the extended symplectic group. We show how covariance is related to and in fact in competition with the possibility of damping the interferences which arise due to the quadratic nature of the distributions. We also show that the well-known fully covariance property of the Wigner distribution in fact characterizes it (up to a constant factor) among the quadratic distributions $L^{2}(\mathbb{R}^{n})\rightarrow C_{0}({ \mathbb{R}^{2n}})$. A similar characterization for the closely related Weyl transform is given as well. The results are illustrated by several numerical experiments for the Wigner and Born--Jordan distributions of the sum of four Gaussian functions in the so-called diamond configuration.

DOI: 10.1137/16m1104615

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We study the covariance property of quadratic time-frequency distributions with respect to the action of the extended symplectic group. We show how covariance is related to and in fact in competition with the possibility of damping the interferences which arise due to the quadratic nature of the distributions. We also show that the well-known fully covariance property of the Wigner distribution in fact characterizes it (up to a constant factor) among the quadratic distributions

L^{2}(\mathbb{R}^{n})\rightarrow C_{0}({ \mathbb{R}^{2n}})

. A similar characterization for the closely related Weyl transform is given as well. The results are illustrated by several numerical experiments for the Wigner and Born--Jordan distributions of the sum of four Gaussian functions in the so-called diamond configuration.

We find a relationship between the dynamics of the Gaussian wave packet and the dynamics of the corresponding Gaussian Wigner function from the Hamiltonian/symplectic point of view. The main result states that the momentum map corresponding to the natural action of the symplectic group on the Siegel upper half space yields the covariance matrix of the corresponding Gaussian Wigner function. This fact, combined with Kostant’s coadjoint orbit covering theorem, establishes a symplectic/Poisson-geometric connection between the two dynamics. The Hamiltonian formulation naturally gives rise to corrections to the potential terms in the dynamics of both the wave packet and the Wigner function, thereby resulting in slightly different sets of equations from the conventional classical ones. We numerically investigate the effect of the correction term and demonstrate that it improves the accuracy of the dynamics as an approximation to the dynamics of expectation values of observables.

Affine Wigner functions are phase space representations based on the affine group in place of the usual Weyl–Heisenberg group of quantum mechanics. Such representations are relevant to the time–frequency analysis of real signals. An interesting family is singled out by the requirement of covariance with respect to each solvable three-parameter group containing the affine group. Explicit forms are given in each case and properties such as unitarity and localization are discussed. Some particular distributions are recovered.

We derive Heisenberg uncertainty principles for pairs of Linear Canonical Transforms of a given function, by resorting to the fact that these transforms are just metaplectic operators associated with free symplectic matrices. The results obtained synthesize and generalize previous results found in the literature, because they apply to all signals, in arbitrary dimension and any metaplectic operator (which includes Linear Canonical Transforms as particular cases). Moreover, we also obtain a generalization of the Robertson-Schrödinger uncertainty principle for Linear Canonical Transforms. We also propose a new quadratic phase-space distribution, which represents a signal along two intermediate directions in the time-frequency plane. The marginal distributions are always non-negative and permit a simple interpretation in terms of the Radon transform. We also give a geometric interpretation of this quadratic phase-space representation as a Wigner distribution obtained upon Weyl quantization on a non-standard symplectic vector space. Finally, we derive the multidimensional version of the Hardy uncertainty principle for metaplectic operators and the Paley-Wiener theorem for Linear Canonical Transforms.

We propose classes of quadratic time-frequency distributions that retain the inner structure of Cohen's class. Each of these classes is based on a pair of conjugate unitary operators producing time-frequency displacements. The classes satisfy covariance and marginal properties corresponding to these operators. For each class, we define a central member generalizing the Wigner distribution and the Q-distribution, and we specify a transformation by which the class can be derived from Cohen's class.