Linear canonical ambiguity function and linear canonical transform moments

A new phase-space distribution, linear canonical ambiguity function (LCAF), is proposed based on the linear canonical transform (LCT). The properties and physical meaning of the LCAF are given. The LCT moments are introduced and the relationships between the LCAF and the LCT moments are also derived. As an application, simple expressions for the center of gravity of the LCT power spectra and the effective width of the first-order optical system diffracted beam are derived. Compared with the conventional ambiguity function, the LCAF has three additional freedoms, i.e., the parameters characterizing a LCT, which make the LCAF more attractive for the analysis of optical signals.     

The impulse response function of apertured and misaligned ABCD optical system in phase-space

By expanding the aperture into complex Gaussian functions, the approximate analytical impulse response function of apertured and misaligned ABCD optical system in phase-space is determined, which allows us to formulate the input-output relation completely in terms of Wigner distribution functions. Its shown that the hard-aperture placed before the optical system will change the shape of output signal Wigner distribution and the misalignment of optical system will introduce the output Wigner distribution function a coordinate shift in phase-space. For examining the analytical results some numerical simulation are done and the graphical results as well as the absolute errors between analytical results and numerical integral ones are presented.     

Multichannel sampling expansion in the linear canonical transform domain and its application to superresolution

The linear canonical transform (LCT) describes the effect of first-order quadratic phase optical system on a wave field. In this paper, we address the problem of signal reconstruction from multichannel samples in the LCT domain based on a new convolution theorem. Firstly, a new convolution structure is proposed for the LCT, which states that a modified ordinary convolution in the time domain is equivalent to a simple multiplication operation for LCT and Fourier transform (FT). Moreover, it is expressible by a one dimensional integral and easy to implement in the designing of filters. The convolution theorem in FT domain is shown to be a special case of our achieved results. Then, a practical multichannel sampling expansion for band limited signal with the LCT is introduced. This sampling expansion which is constructed by the new convolution structure can reduce the effect of spectral leakage and is easy to implement. Last, the potential application of the multichannel sampling is presented to show the advantage of the theory. Especially, the application of multichannel sampling in the context of the image superresolution is also discussed. The simulation results of superresolution are also presented.     

Decentered twisted Gaussian Schell-model beams and their propagation through a misaligned first-order optical system

The propagation properties of decentered twisted Gaussian Schell-model (DTGSM) beams passing through a misaligned first-order optical system are studied. The explicit expressions for the cross-spectral density function and Wigner distribution function of the output beam are derived, which retain their form unchanged. It is shown that the DTGSM beams preserve their closed property. The second-order moments matrix and the Wigner distribution function evolve with the usual laws, whereas the first-order moments matrix varies, as if a ray passes through such system. The propagation of DTGSM beams through an aligned first-order optical system is treated as the limiting case that corresponds to the vanishing misalignment parameters.     

A note on the wigner distribution function

We rigorously prove that in general it is impossible to obtain a nonnegative phase-space distribution function through averaging a Wigner distribution function (WDF) over the finite phase-space cells. Moreover, we introduce a classification of WDFs according to the possibility of performing such an averaging procedure. Some examples of WDFs are also briefly discussed.     

Multichannel sampling theorem for bandpass signals in the linear canonical transform domain

The linear canonical transform (LCT) describes the effect of first-order quadratic phase optical system on a wave field. The classical multichannel sampling theorem for common bandlimited signals has been extended differently to bandlimited signals associated with LCT. However, a practical issue associated with the reconstruction of the original bandpass signal from multichannel samples in LCT domain still remains unresolved. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a practical multichannel sampling theorem for bandpass signals in LCT domain. The sampling expansion which is constructed by the ordinary convolution in the time domain can reduce the effect of spectral leakage and is easy to implement. The classical multichannel sampling theorem and the well-known sampling theorems for the LCT are shown to be special cases of it. Some potential applications of the multichannel sampling are also presented to show the advantage of the theory.     

Reconstruction of band-limited signals from multichannel and periodic nonuniform samples in the linear canonical transform domain

Linear canonical transforms (LCTs) are a family of integral transforms with wide application in optical, acoustical, electromagnetic, and other wave propagation problems. This paper addresses the problem of signal reconstruction from multichannel and periodic nonuniform samples in the LCT domain. Firstly, the multichannel sampling theorem (MST) for band-limited signals with the LCT is proposed based on multichannel system equations, which is the generalization of the well-known sampling theorem for the LCT. We consider the problem of reconstructing the signal from its samples which are acquired using a multichannel sampling scheme. For this purpose, we propose two alternatives. The first scheme is based on the conventional Fourier series and inverse LCT operation. The second is based on the conventional Fourier series and inverse Fourier transform (FT) operation. Moreover, the classical Papoulis MST in FT domain is shown to be special case of the achieved results. Since the periodic nonuniformly sampled signal in the LCT has valuable applications, the reconstruction expression for the periodic nonuniformly sampled signal has been then obtained by using the derived MST and the specific space-shifting property of the LCT. Last, the potential applications of the MST are presented to show the advantage of the theory.     

Measurement-induced decoherence and Gaussian smoothing of the Wigner distribution function

We study the problem of measurement-induced decoherence using the phase-space approach employing the Gaussian-smoothed Wigner distribution function. Our investigation is based on the notion that measurement-induced decoherence is represented by the transition from the Wigner distribution to the Gaussian-smoothed Wigner distribution with the widths of the smoothing function identified as measurement errors. We also compare the smoothed Wigner distribution with the corresponding distribution resulting from the classical analysis. The distributions we computed are the phase-space distributions for simple one-dimensional dynamical systems such as a particle in a square-well potential and a particle moving under the influence of a step potential, and the time-frequency distributions for high-harmonic radiation emitted from an atom irradiated by short, intense laser pulses.     

Wigner function and the parity operator

It is shown that the linear canonical transformation properties of the Wigner function P(q, p) naturally require it to be proportional to the expectation value of the parity operator that performs reflections about the phase-space point (q, p).     

Wigner Measures in Noncommutative Quantum Mechanics

We study the properties of quasi-distributions or Wigner measures in the context of noncommutative quantum mechanics. In particular, we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for a phase-space function to be a noncommutative Wigner measure, for a Gaussian to be a noncommutative Wigner measure, and derive certain properties of the marginal distributions which are not shared by ordinary Wigner measures. Moreover, we derive the Robertson-Schrödinger uncertainty principle. Finally, we show explicitly how the set of noncommutative Wigner measures relates to the sets of Liouville and (commutative) Wigner measures.     

Time-resolved phase-space distributions for light backscattered from a disordered medium

We demonstrate time-resolved measurement of optical phase-space distributions as a new probe for investigating the propagation of light in disordered media. Phase-space techniques measure the joint transverse position and momentum distribution of the scattered light, and are sensitive to the spatially varying phase and amplitude of the field. Using this method we investigate light backscattered from a random medium. The measurements indicate that the weakly localized component is a phase conjugate of the incident light field. A new model of backscatter, based on Wigner phase-space distributions, elucidates the spatial and angular behavior of the localized and unlocalized components.     

EPR light beams and non-Gaussian quantum distributions in the time domain

We investigate time-dependent properties of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) light beams generated in nondegenerate optical parametric oscillator (NOPO) driven by a sequence of laser pulses with Gaussian time-dependent envelops. The peculiarities of EPR beams are discussed on the base of quadrature squeezing and also in the framework of phase-space Wigner functions for EPR beams which are combined on a half beam splitter. We also investigate the Wigner functions of intensity-correlated twin beams following the conditional photon state-preparation scheme. It is demonstrated that the Wigner functions involve negative values in parts of the phase space for the schemes with one-, two-, and three-photons.     

Wigner Transforms and Fractional Fourier Transforms of the First Order Optical Systems

Based on the Collins formula, the relationship between the coordinate transform matrix (WCTM) of the Wigner distribution function (WDF) and the ray transfer matrix (RTM) of an arbitrary first-order optical system has been derived. By using this relation and the definition of fractional Fourier transform (FRT) in terms of WDF rotation, it is concluded that an arbitrary first-order optical system can be generally decomposed into a thin lens and a FRT sub-system whose order is not unique and depends on two concrete decomposing operations on the system. And when the system is reciprocally symmetric, a FRT can be implemented by it. In addition, the composition, that is also the decomposition condition of the complicated FRT optical system by cascading a series of FRT subsystems has also been derived by using the operations of RTM.     

On constructing the wave function of a quantum particle from its Wigner phase-space distribution function

For a Schrödinger wave function, the part of the phase that depends only on time disappears in the construction of the corresponding Wigner phase-space (quasi)distribution function. Despite this, it can be recovered from the Wigner function using the quantum Hamilton–Jacobi equation. This is demonstrated for three simple cases.     

Wigner Function for Klein--Gordon Landau Problem

First we calculate the Wigner phase-space distribution function for the Klein-Gordan Landau problem on a commmutative space. Then we study the modifications introduced by the coordinate-coordinate noncommuting and momentum-momentum noncommuting, namely, by using a generalized Bopp's shift method we construct the Wigner function for the Klein-Gordan Landau problem both on a noncommutative space (NCS) and a noncommutative phase space (NCPS).     

Heterodyne measurement of Wigner distributions for classical optical fields

We demonstrate a two-window heterodyne method for measuring the x-p cross correlation, ??(*)(x)? (p)?, of an optical field ? for transverse position x and transverse momentum p. This scheme permits independent control of the x and p resolution. A simple linear transform of the x-p correlation function yields the Wigner phase-space distribution. This technique is useful for both coherent and low-coherence light sources and may permit new biological imaging techniques based on transverse coherence measurement with time gating. We point out an interesting analogy between x-p correlation measurements for classical-wave and quantum fields.     

Interpretation of the hydrodynamical formalism of quantum mechanics

The hydrodynamical formalism for the quantum theory of a nonrelativistic particle is considered, together with a reformulation of it which makes use of the methods of kinetic theory and is based on the existence of the Wigner phase-space distribution. It is argued that this reformulation provides strong evidence in favor of the statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics, and it is suggested that this latter could be better understood as an almost classical statistical theory. Moreover, it is shown how, within this context, the Wigner and the Margenau-Hill functions are not equivalent, and that the latter is essentially unsatisfactory, as well as the associated symmetrization rule. Arguments in favor of a stochastic picture of the phenomena at the microscopic level are also presented.