The phase-space formulation of quantum mechanics places the position and momentum variables on equal footing in phase space. In contrast, the Schrödinger picture uses the position or momentum representations (see also position and momentum space). The two key features of the phase-space formulation are that the quantum state is described by a quasiprobability distribution (instead of a wave function, state vector, or density matrix) and operator multiplication is replaced by a star product. The theory was fully developed by Hilbrand Groenewold in 1946 in his PhD thesis, and independently by Joe Moyal, each building on earlier ideas by Hermann Weyl and Eugene Wigner. The chief advantage of the phase-space formulation is that it makes quantum mechanics appear as similar to Hamiltonian mechanics as possible by avoiding the operator formalism, thereby "'freeing' the quantization of the 'burden' of the Hilbert space". This formulation is statistical in nature and offers logical connections between quantum mechanics and classical statistical mechanics, enabling a natural comparison between the two (see classical limit). Quantum mechanics in phase space is often favored in certain quantum optics applications (see optical phase space), or in the study of decoherence and a range of specialized technical problems, though otherwise the formalism is less commonly employed in practical situations. The conceptual ideas underlying the development of quantum mechanics in phase space have branched into mathematical offshoots such as Kontsevich's deformation-quantization (see Kontsevich quantization formula) and noncommutative geometry. Wigner quasiprobability distributionQuasiprobability distribution and Wigner–Weyl transform The phase-space distribution f(x, p) of a quantum state is a quasiprobability distribution. In the phase-space formulation, the phase-space distribution may be treated as the fundamental, primitive description of the quantum system, without any reference to wave functions or density matrices.

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Related concepts (24)
Wigner quasiprobability distribution
The Wigner quasiprobability distribution (also called the Wigner function or the Wigner–Ville distribution, after Eugene Wigner and Jean-André Ville) is a quasiprobability distribution. It was introduced by Eugene Wigner in 1932 to study quantum corrections to classical statistical mechanics. The goal was to link the wavefunction that appears in Schrödinger's equation to a probability distribution in phase space. It is a generating function for all spatial autocorrelation functions of a given quantum-mechanical wavefunction ψ(x).
Moyal product
In mathematics, the Moyal product (after José Enrique Moyal; also called the star product or Weyl–Groenewold product, after Hermann Weyl and Hilbrand J. Groenewold) is an example of a phase-space star product. It is an associative, non-commutative product, , on the functions on R2n, equipped with its Poisson bracket (with a generalization to symplectic manifolds, described below). It is a special case of the -product of the "algebra of symbols" of a universal enveloping algebra.
Optical phase space
In quantum optics, an optical phase space is a phase space in which all quantum states of an optical system are described. Each point in the optical phase space corresponds to a unique state of an optical system. For any such system, a plot of the quadratures against each other, possibly as functions of time, is called a phase diagram. If the quadratures are functions of time then the optical phase diagram can show the evolution of a quantum optical system with time.
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