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We show that the deformation quantization of noncommutative quantum mechanics previously considered by Dias and Prata [“Weyl–Wigner formulation of noncommutative quantum mechanics,” J. Math. Phys. 49, 072101 (2008)] and Bastos, Dias, and Prata [“Wigner measures in non-commutative quantum mechanics,” e-print arXiv:math-ph/0907.4438v1; Commun. Math. Phys. (to appear)] can be expressed as a Weyl calculus on a double phase space. We study the properties of the star-product thus defined and prove a spectral theorem for the star-genvalue equation using an extension of the methods recently initiated by de Gosson and Luef [“A new approach to the *-genvalue equation,” Lett. Math. Phys. 85, 173–183 (2008)]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address the phase-space formulation of a noncommutative extension of quantum mechanics in arbitrary dimension, displaying both spatial and momentum noncommutativities. By resorting to a covariant generalization of the Weyl–Wigner transform and to the Darboux map, we construct an isomorphism between the operator and the phase-space representations of the extended Heisenberg algebra. This map provides a systematic approach to derive the entire structure of noncommutative quantum mechanics in phase space. We construct the extended star product and Moyal bracket and propose a general definition of noncommutative states. We study the dynamical and eigenvalue equations of the theory and prove that the entire formalism is independent of the particular choice of the Darboux map. Our approach unifies and generalizes all the previous proposals for the phase-space formulation of noncommutative quantum mechanics. For concreteness we rederive these proposals by restricting our formalism to some two-dimensional spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the Moyal evolution of the canonical position and momentum variables. We compare it with the classical evolution and show that, contrary to what is commonly found in the literature, the two dynamics do not coincide. We prove that this divergence is quite general by studying Hamiltonians of the form p2/2m+V(q). Several alternative formulations of Moyal dynamics are then suggested. We introduce the concept of star function and use it to reformulate the Moyal equations in terms of a system of ordinary differential equations on the noncommutative Moyal plane. We then use this formulation to study the semiclassical expansion of Moyal trajectories, which is cast in terms of a (order by order in h) recursive hierarchy of (i) first order partial differential equations as well as (ii) systems of first order ordinary differential equations. The latter formulation is derived independently for analytic Hamiltonians as well as for the more general case of locally integrable ones. We present various examples illustrating these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address the deformation quantization of generally parametrized systems displaying a natural time variable. The purpose of this exercise is twofold: first, to illustrate through a pedagogical example the potential of quantum phase space methods in the context of constrained systems and particularly of generally covariant systems. Second, to show that a causal representation for quantum phase space quasidistributions can be easily achieved through general parametrization. This result is succinctly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the action of time dependent canonical and coordinate transformations in phase space quantum mechanics. We extend the covariant formulation of the theory by providing a formalism that is fully invariant under both standard and time dependent coordinate transformations. This result considerably enlarges the set of possible phase space representations of quantum mechanics and makes it possible to construct a causal representation for the distributional sector of Wigner quantum mechanics. © 2004 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the general Wigner function for a particle confined to a finite interval and subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions. We derive the boundary corrections to the "stargenvalue" equation and to the time evolution equation. These corrections can be cast in the form of a boundary potential contributing to the total Hamiltonian which together with a subsidiary boundary condition is responsible for the discretization of the energy levels. We show that a completely analogous formulation (in terms of boundary potentials) is also possible in standard operator quantum mechanics and that the Wigner and the operator formulations are also in one-to-one correspondence in the confined case. In particular, we extend Baker's converse construction to bounded systems. Finally, we elaborate on the applications of the formalism to the subject of Wigner trajectories, namely in the context of collision processes and quantum systems displaying chaotic behavior in the classical limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the Weyl quantization on a flat non-standard symplectic vector space. We focus mainly on the properties of the Wigner functions defined therein. In particular we show that the sets of Wigner functions on distinct symplectic spaces are different but have non-empty intersections. This extends previous results to arbitrary dimension and arbitrary (constant) symplectic structure. As a by-product we introduce and prove several concepts and results on non-standard symplectic spaces which generalize those on the standard symplectic space, namely, the symplectic spectrum, Williamson’s theorem, and Narcowich-Wigner spectra. We also show how Wigner functions on non-standard symplectic spaces behave under the action of an arbitrary linear coordinate transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]