On the Group of Translations and Inversions of Phase Space and the Wigner Functions

Abstract

Grossmann and Royer have recently shown that the Wigner functions are closely related to the set of all translations and inversions of phase space. This allows the phase space representation of quantum mechanics to be constructed directly on the group of phase space translations and inversions. Starting from this observation, we have derived analytical expressions for the matrix elements of the translation and inversion operators, in the harmonic oscillator representation, without introducing coordinate or momentum wavefunctions.