Edited by Cosmas K Zachos, David B Fairlie and Thomas L Curtright, World Scientific. Hardback ISBN 9812383840, £64 ($86).
Wigner’s quasi-probability distribution function in phase space is a special (Weyl) representation of the density matrix. It has been useful in describing quantum transport in quantum optics; nuclear physics; decoherence, quantum computing and quantum chaos. It is also important in signal processing and the mathematics of algebraic deformation. A remarkable aspect of its internal logic, pioneered by Groenewold and Moyal, has emerged in the last quarter-century, furnishing a third, alternative, formulation of quantum mechanics, independent of the conventional Hilbert space or path integral formulations. This book is a collection of the seminal papers on this formulation, with an introductory overview, an extensive bibliography, and simple illustrations, suitable for application to a broad range of physics problems.
