A General Theory of Phase-Space Quasiprobability Distributions

Abstract

We present a general theory of quasiprobability distributions on phase spaces of quantum systems whose dynamical symmetry groups are (finite-dimensional) Lie groups. The family of distributions on a phase space is postulated to satisfy the Stratonovich-Weyl correspondence with a generalized traciality condition. The corresponding family of the Stratonovich-Weyl kernels is constructed explicitly. In the presented theory we use the concept of the generalized coherent states, that brings physical insight into the mathematical formalism.Comment: REVTeX, 4 pages. More information on http://www.technion.ac.il/~brif/science.htm