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The Journal of Chemical Physics

Some properties of the Husimi function

John E. Harriman

Published May 15, 1988• 48 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The Husimi function provides a phase-space view of quantum systems. This paper considers a number of its properties, including ways in which it can be expanded in terms of basis functions. A spectral or ‘‘natural’’ expansion and an expansion analogous to the Carlson–Keller expansion in terms of coordinate-density momentum-density products are considered, as is a method for separating the angular dependence of the momentum. There is a set of functions in phase space having the same overlap properties as the initial orbital basis in terms of which the charge density matrix is expressed. A Husimi matrix is defined and a scalar product in the space containing such matrices as elements is introduced. The connection with the vector space of density matrices is examined. The Husimi function is related to the Husimi matrix in a way analogous to the relationship between a density matrix and a density, but there is a major difference in that this map can always be inverted. For a harmonic oscillator basis the phase space basis functions, in terms of which the Husimi function is expressed, span a linear space but do not provide a complete set; their products provide a linearly independent set that is complete. It is suggested that similar behavior can be expected for other basis sets.

DOI
10.1063/1.454477

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The Husimi function provides a phase-space view of quantum systems. This paper considers a number of its properties, including ways in which it can be expanded in terms of basis functions. A spectral or ‘‘natural’’ expansion and an expansion analogous to the Carlson–Keller expansion in terms of coordinate-density momentum-density products are considered, as is a method for separating the angular dependence of the momentum. There is a set of functions in phase space having the same overlap properties as the initial orbital basis in terms of which the charge density matrix is expressed. A Husimi matrix is defined and a scalar product in the space containing such matrices as elements is introduced. The connection with the vector space of density matrices is examined. The Husimi function is related to the Husimi matrix in a way analogous to the relationship between a density matrix and a density, but there is a major difference in that this map can always be inverted. For a harmonic oscillator basis the phase space basis functions, in terms of which the Husimi function is expressed, span a linear space but do not provide a complete set; their products provide a linearly independent set that is complete. It is suggested that similar behavior can be expected for other basis sets.
Abstract This paper considers a Husimi representation of quantum mechanics in which the (stationary) state of a system or ensemble is described by a Husimi function and an observable is described by a phase space function or distribution such that the expectation value of the observable is given by an integral over phase space of the product of that function or distribution and the Husimi function. The density matrix, Wigner function, and Husimi function are considered to be alternative ways of describing the state of a system or ensemble, and methods of recovering the Wigner function or density matrix from the Husimi function are discussed. The classical limits of the Wigner and Husimi functions and of the relationship between them are considered. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
We consider scale transformations (q, p) → (λq, λp) in phase space. They induce transformations of the Husimi functions H(q, p) defined in this space. We consider the Husimi functions for states that are arbitrary superpositions of n-particle states of a harmonic oscillator. We develop a method that allows finding so-called stretched states to which these superpositions transform under such a scale transformation. We study the properties of the stretched states and calculate their density matrices in explicit form. We establish that the density matrix structure can be described using negative binomial distributions. We find expressions for the energy and entropy of stretched states and calculate the means of the number-ofstates operator. We give the form of the Heisenberg and Robertson–Schrödinger uncertainty relations for stretched states.
Phase-space representations reveal the geometry of quantum mechanics and distinguish quantum features from classical ones. However, the positivity of a density operator is among the properties of quantum states that phase-space representations capture least directly: deciding whether a phase-space function describes a physical quantum state has so far required global conditions coupling distant points in phase space. Here we show that these conditions can in fact be made local, by considering the Husimi representation in phase space. We establish a complete set of conditions which captures when a phase-space function fff is the Husimi function of a quantum state, with each condition involving only the derivatives of the function fff evaluated at a single phase-space point. We further show that each condition has an equivalent algebraic characterization, which takes the form of the nonnegativity of a determinant of the underlying operator in a displaced Fock basis. As a result, these conditions obey a recurrence relation organizing them into a differential hierarchy, which terminates based on the rank of the operator. Our results thus show that operator rank and positivity are local properties in phase space, reinforcing the role of phase-space representations as a geometric description of quantum mechanics.
We present a time evolution equation that provides a novel basis for the treatment of quantum systems in phase space and for the investigation of the quantum-classical correspondence. Through the use of a generalized Husimi transform, we obtain a phase space representation of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation directly from the coordinate representation. Such an equation governs the time evolution of densities such as the Husimi density entirely in phase space, without recourse to a coordinate or momentum representation. As an application of the phase-space Schrödinger equation, we compute the eigenfunctions of the harmonic oscillator in phase space, relate these to the Husimi transform of coordinate representation eigenstates, and investigate the coherent state, its time evolution, and classical limit (ℏ→0) for the probability density generated by this state. Finally, we discuss our results as they relate to the quantum-classical correspondence, and quasiclassical trajectory simulations of quantum dynamics.
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.
The local structure present in Wigner and Husimi phase-space distributions and their marginals are studied and quantified via information-theoretic quantities. Shannon, R\'enyi, and cumulative residual entropies of the Wigner and Husimi distributions are examined in the ground and excited states of a harmonic oscillator. The entropies of the Wigner function marginals are lower than the corresponding entropies of the Husimi function marginals, which illustrates how the nodal structure present in the Wigner function is lost upon consideration of the Husimi function. Shannon and cumulative residual entropies of the Wigner function yield entropies which are complex valued. Absolute values and real components of these quantities increase with quantum number, displaying a behavior which is consistent with their real-valued Husimi function counterparts. This comportment is also similar to the real-valued R\'enyi entropies of the Wigner function. The entropies of the Wigner function are observed to be lower than the corresponding Husimi function ones, in agreement with the results for the marginals. The real components of the Wigner function entropies are seen to be closer to the uncertainty relation bound compared to the corresponding Husimi function entropies. These real components are also closer to the bound when contrasted to the entropic sum of the marginal densities. The R\'enyi or collision entropy of the Wigner function sits exactly on the bound. Related statistical correlation measures show that the position-momentum correlation is larger in the Wigner function compared to the Husimi function and increases with quantum number.