Classical and quantum mechanics across representations: an operational reading of the Wigner Weyl correspondence

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2607.13135v1
• Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2026 18:00:01 GMT
• Title: Classical and quantum mechanics across representations: an operational reading of the Wigner Weyl correspondence
• Abstract summary: Both classical and quantum mechanics admit equivalent representations, notably in phase space and in Hilbert space, related by the Wigner-Weyl correspondence.<n>Here we give a systematic account of what changes, and what does not, when classical and quantum theories are expressed in each other's native language.<n>We develop the comparison at the level of states, kinematics, and dynamics, and extend it to measurement by formulating both outcome statistics and state-update rules within the same framework.
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• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: The physical content of a theory is not intrinsically tied to any single mathematical formalism. Both classical and quantum mechanics admit equivalent representations, notably in phase space and in Hilbert space, related by the Wigner-Weyl correspondence. While this correspondence has long been studied in mathematical physics, its foundational and operational implications are often left implicit. Here we give a systematic account of what changes, and what does not, when classical and quantum theories are expressed in each other's native language. This representational viewpoint separates artifacts (such as the appearance of non-positivity or negativity under certain maps) from robust structural distinctions that persist across representations, in particular noncommutativity and its $\hbar$-dependent $\star$-deformation of the classical algebra. We develop the comparison at the level of states, kinematics, and dynamics, and extend it to measurement by formulating both outcome statistics and state-update rules within the same framework.

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