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arXiv:2605.28786

A quantum harmonic analysis approach to nonlinear time-frequency concentration

Erling A. T. Svela, S. Ivan Trapasso

Published May 27, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study nonlinear concentration problems for time-frequency distributions in the Cohen class. Using recent techniques from quantum harmonic analysis (QHA) we provide both positive and negative results, such as sufficient conditions for the existence of optimizers in terms of the ``window operator'' and explicit examples where the supremum is never attained. We also study the structural properties of window operators, in particular operators that yield weakly continuous concentration functionals and operators for which the nonlinear concentration problem admits an optimizer, also beyond the Heisenberg representation. We then consider generalizations to the study of concentration problems for phase space representations of operators. We consider generalized Husimi distributions via quantum convolution, and their optimization problem when optimizing over Hilbert--Schmidt and density operators. Lastly, we consider representations of operators on double phase space, in the spirit of quantum time-frequency analysis, and give a full solution in terms of the Weyl symbols.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2605.28786

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We study nonlinear concentration problems for time-frequency distributions in the Cohen class. Using recent techniques from quantum harmonic analysis (QHA) we provide both positive and negative results, such as sufficient conditions for the existence of optimizers in terms of the ``window operator'' and explicit examples where the supremum is never attained. We also study the structural properties of window operators, in particular operators that yield weakly continuous concentration functionals and operators for which the nonlinear concentration problem admits an optimizer, also beyond the Heisenberg representation. We then consider generalizations to the study of concentration problems for phase space representations of operators. We consider generalized Husimi distributions via quantum convolution, and their optimization problem when optimizing over Hilbert--Schmidt and density operators. Lastly, we consider representations of operators on double phase space, in the spirit of quantum time-frequency analysis, and give a full solution in terms of the Weyl symbols.
In this paper we study the relationships between general quantization rules which yield Cohen operators and the signal time-frequency representations in the Cohen class. After defining a suitable functional setting, we focus on the particular case of the concentration operators which, as the multipliers and Fourier multipliers in the Donoho-Stark uncertainty principle, furnish estimates of the energy concentration on subsets of the time-frequency space. Finally we study the case of positive representations in the Cohen class.
This thesis describes quantum mechanics in the phase space formulation. We introduce quantization and in particular the Weyl quantization. We study a general class of phase space distribution functions on phase space. The Wigner distribution function is one such distribution function. The Wigner distribution function in general attains negative values and thus can not be interpreted as a real probability density, as opposed to for example the Husimi distribution function. The Husimi distribution however does not yield the correct marginal distribution functions known from quantum mechanics. Properties of the Wigner and Husimi distribution function are studied to more extent. We calculate the Wigner and Husimi distribution function for the energy eigenstates of a particle trapped in a box. We then look at the semi classical limit for this example. The time evolution of Wigner functions are studied by making use of the Moyal bracket. The Moyal bracket and the Poisson bracket are compared in the classical limit. The phase space formulation of quantum mechanics has as advantage that classical concepts can be studied and compared to quantum mechanics. For certain quantum mechanical systems the time evolution of Wigner distribution functions becomes equivalent to the classical time evolution stated in the exact Egerov theorem. Another advantage of using Wigner functions is when one is interested in systems involving mixed states. A disadvantage of the phase space formulation is that for most problems it quickly loses its simplicity and becomes hard to calculate.
We propose a procedure to generalize the Husimi distribution to systems with continuous spectrum. We start examining a pioneering work, by Gazeau and Klauder, where the concept of coherent states for systems with discrete spectrum was extended to systems with continuous one. In the present article, we see the Husimi distribution as a representation of the density operator in terms of a basis of coherent states. There are other ways to obtain it, but we do not consider here. We specially discuss the problem of the continuous harmonic oscillator.
Time-frequency analysis is important to identify the localized information of a non-stationary signal in the time and frequency domains simultaneously.There are few different time-frequency analysis methods available with their own specialty and suitability.In quantum mechanics Husimi function of any quantum mechanical state arises naturally whenever the simultaneous measurement of both coordinate and momentum is performed on this state with maximal accuracy allowed by the Heisenberg uncertainty relations.The Husimi function is a probability distribution for the statistics of simultaneous unsharp measurement of both coordinate and momentum.In general, like the Wigner function, the Husimi function can be defined in the space of any pair of conjugate variables.In particular, in the studies of signal processing, this space is the time-frequency space.In the present work we consider the Husimi function in this space, and apply it to analyse the multicomponent signals.The time-frequency representations of the simulated signals by using the Husimi distribution clearly show the frequency features along the time axis.The results are encouraging and indicate that, like in corresponding analogous problems in quantum mechanics, the Husimi distribution approach in the time-frequency analysis for non-stationary optical signals may provide some insights which are not so easily obtained in other, more spread approaches.
The Wigner distribution is a milestone of Time–frequency Analysis. In order to cope with its drawbacks while preserving the desirable features that made it so popular, several kinds of modifications have been proposed. This contribution fits into this perspective. We introduce a family of phase-space representations of Wigner type associated with invertible matrices and explore their general properties. As a main result, we provide a characterization for the Cohen’s class [L. Cohen, Generalized phase-space distribution functions, J. Math. Phys. 7 (1996) 781–786; Time–frequency Analysis (Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1995)]. This feature suggests to interpret this family of representations as linear perturbations of the Wigner distribution. We show which of its properties survive under linear perturbations and which ones are truly distinctive of its central role.