Wigner phase space distribution as a wave function
Quantum Physics
2013-11-20 v4 Mathematical Physics
math.MP
Atomic Physics
Abstract
We demonstrate that the Wigner function of a pure quantum state is a wave function in a specially tuned Dirac bra-ket formalism and argue that the Wigner function is in fact a probability amplitude for the quantum particle to be at a certain point of the classical phase space. Additionally, we establish that in the classical limit, the Wigner function transforms into a classical Koopman-von Neumann wave function rather than into a classical probability distribution. Since probability amplitude need not be positive, our findings provide an alternative outlook on the Wigner function's negativity.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1202.3628,
title = {Wigner phase space distribution as a wave function},
author = {Denys I. Bondar and Renan Cabrera and Dmitry V. Zhdanov and Herschel A. Rabitz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1202.3628},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
6 pages and 2 figures