ar X iv : m at h - ph / 0 10 60 14 v 1 1 8 Ju n 20 01 Plancherel Inversion as Unified Approach to Wavelet Transforms and Wigner Functions

We demonstrate that the Plancherel transform for Type-I groups provides one with a natural, unified perspective for the generalized continuous wavelet transform, on the one hand, and for a class of Wigner functions, on the other. The wavelet transform of a signal is an L2-function on an appropriately chosen group while the Wigner function is defined on a coadjoint orbit of the group and serves as an alternative characterization of the signal, which is often used in practical applications. The Plancherel transform maps L2-functions on a group unitarily to fields of Hilbert-Schmidt operators, indexed by unitary irreducible representations of the group. The wavelet transform can essentially be looked upon as a restricted inverse Plancherel transform, while Wigner functions are modified Fourier transforms of inverse Plancherel transforms, usually restricted to a subset of the unitary dual of the group. Some known results on both Wigner functions and wavelet transforms, appearing in the literature from very different perspectives, are naturally unified within our approach. Explicit computations on a number of groups illustrate the theory. e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]