Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 335 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Fix a receiver position and define . Choose the two scalar fields in the Wigner distribution to be . Fourier inversion in the separation variable givesIndeed, substituting the defining Wigner distribution makes the integral a Dirac delta function, canceling its normalization and setting the separation equal to .
Average over the receiver plane, including the aperture:Then the receiver-averaged Wigner distribution represents the back-propagated field asThe fast decay of justifies its use as a test function. For oscillatory Green functions that are not integrable, the Wigner distribution and its inversion can be understood as tempered distributions, or derived with smooth cutoffs before taking their limits.
The printed expression can also be used literally, but its displayed integral is over source-plane coordinates, not receiver positions. The missing receiver average and source weight can be encoded by choosing vector fields whose channels are the receivers. LetContract the receiver channels in the product of the vector fields, so thatWith exactly the printed definitionthe same Fourier inversion now yields the requested compact formFor a finite array, the receiver integral in the contraction is a weighted sum. For a continuous array, these are fields valued in the receiver Hilbert space. An uncontracted vector outer product instead gives a matrix-valued Wigner distribution, whose receiver trace must be taken. Thus the printed formula is usable with these choices and this contraction convention, but its phrase “over the plane of the receiver” does not describe the displayed integral.
Wigner distribution 2026-10-05
The Wigner distribution of two fields is the Fourier transform of a field's two-point product in its separation variable:Its inverse reconstructs . For vector fields, specify whether the product is an outer product or a scalar contraction; the latter can encode an average over receiver channels.