The canonical Kravchuk basis for discrete quantum mechanics

Abstract

The well known Kravchuk formalism of the harmonic oscillator obtained from the direct discretization method is shown to be a new way of formulating discrete quantum phase space. It is shown that the Kravchuk oscillator Hamiltonian has a well defined unitary canonical partner which we identify with the quantum phase of the Kravchuk oscillator. The generalized discrete Wigner function formalism based on the action and angle variables is applied to the Kravchuk oscillator and its continuous limit is examined.