%0 Journal Article
%T Wigner phase space distribution as a wave function
%A Denys I. Bondar
%A Renan Cabrera
%A Dmitry V. Zhdanov
%A Herschel A. Rabitz
%J Physics
%D 2012
%I arXiv
%R 10.1103/PhysRevA.88.052108
%X We demonstrate that the Wigner function of a pure quantum state is a wave function in a specially tuned Dirac bra-ket formalism and argue that the Wigner function is in fact a probability amplitude for the quantum particle to be at a certain point of the classical phase space. Additionally, we establish that in the classical limit, the Wigner function transforms into a classical Koopman-von Neumann wave function rather than into a classical probability distribution. Since probability amplitude need not be positive, our findings provide an alternative outlook on the Wigner function's negativity.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.3628v4