Thomas Strohmer – författare

In his paper Theory of Communication [Gab46], D. Gabor proposed the use of a family of functions obtained from one Gaussian by time-and frequency­ shifts. Each of these is well concentrated in time and frequency; together they are meant to constitute a complete collection of building blocks into which more complicated time-depending functions can be decomposed. The application to communication proposed by Gabor was to send the coeffi­ cients of the decomposition into this family of a signal, rather than the signal itself. This remained a proposal-as far as I know there were no seri­ ous attempts to implement it for communication purposes in practice, and in fact, at the critical time-frequency density proposed originally, there is a mathematical obstruction; as was understood later, the family of shifted and modulated Gaussians spans the space of square integrable functions [BBGK71, Per71] (it even has one function to spare [BGZ75] . . . ) but it does not constitute what we now call a frame, leading to numerical insta­ bilities. The Balian-Low theorem (about which the reader can find more in some of the contributions in this book) and its extensions showed that a similar mishap occurs if the Gaussian is replaced by any other function that is "reasonably" smooth and localized. One is thus led naturally to considering a higher time-frequency density.

The Applied and Numerical Harmonic Analysis (ANHA) book series aims to provide the engineering, mathematical, and scientific communities with significant developments in harmonic analysis, ranging from abstract har­ monic analysis to basic applications. The title of the series reflects the im­ portance of applications and numerical implementation, but richness and relevance of applications and implementation depend fundamentally on the structure and depth of theoretical underpinnings. Thus, from our point of view, the interleaving of theory and applications and their creative symbi­ otic evolution is axiomatic. Harmonic analysis is a wellspring of ideas and applicability that has flour­ ished, developed, and deepened over time within many disciplines and by means of creative cross-fertilization with diverse areas. The intricate and fundamental relationship between harmonic analysis and fields such as sig­ nal processing, partial differential equations (PDEs), and image processing is reflected in our state of the art ANHA series. Our vision of modern harmonic analysis includes mathematical areas such as wavelet theory, Banach algebras, classical Fourier analysis, time­ frequency analysis, and fractal geometry, as well as the diverse topics that impinge on them.

The Applied and Numerical Harmonic Analysis (ANHA) book series aims to provide the engineering, mathematical, and scientific communities with significant developments in harmonic analysis, ranging from abstract har­ monic analysis to basic applications. The title of the series reflects the im­ portance of applications and numerical implementation, but richness and relevance of applications and implementation depend fundamentally on the structure and depth of theoretical underpinnings. Thus, from our point of view, the interleaving of theory and applications and their creative symbi­ otic evolution is axiomatic. Harmonic analysis is a wellspring of ideas and applicability that has flour­ ished, developed, and deepened over time within many disciplines and by means of creative cross-fertilization with diverse areas. The intricate and fundamental relationship between harmonic analysis and fields such as sig­ nal processing, partial differential equations (PDEs), and image processing is reflected in our state of the art ANHA series. Our vision of modern harmonic analysis includes mathematical areas such as wavelet theory, Banach algebras, classical Fourier analysis, time­ frequency analysis, and fractal geometry, as well as the diverse topics that impinge on them.

In his paper Theory of Communication [Gab46], D. Gabor proposed the use of a family of functions obtained from one Gaussian by time-and frequency­ shifts. Each of these is well concentrated in time and frequency; together they are meant to constitute a complete collection of building blocks into which more complicated time-depending functions can be decomposed. The application to communication proposed by Gabor was to send the coeffi­ cients of the decomposition into this family of a signal, rather than the signal itself. This remained a proposal-as far as I know there were no seri­ ous attempts to implement it for communication purposes in practice, and in fact, at the critical time-frequency density proposed originally, there is a mathematical obstruction; as was understood later, the family of shifted and modulated Gaussians spans the space of square integrable functions [BBGK71, Per71] (it even has one function to spare [BGZ75] . . . ) but it does not constitute what we now call a frame, leading to numerical insta­ bilities. The Balian-Low theorem (about which the reader can find more in some of the contributions in this book) and its extensions showed that a similar mishap occurs if the Gaussian is replaced by any other function that is "reasonably" smooth and localized. One is thus led naturally to considering a higher time-frequency density.

The Applied and Numerical Harmonic Analysis (ANHA) book series aims to provide the engineering, mathematical, and scientific communities with significant developments in harmonic analysis, ranging from abstract har­ monic analysis to basic applications. The title of the series reflects the im­ portance of applications and numerical implementation, but richness and relevance of applications and implementation depend fundamentally on the structure and depth of theoretical underpinnings. Thus, from our point of view, the interleaving of theory and applications and their creative symbi­ otic evolution is axiomatic. Harmonic analysis is a wellspring of ideas and applicability that has flour­ ished, developed, and deepened over time within many disciplines and by means of creative cross-fertilization with diverse areas. The intricate and fundamental relationship between harmonic analysis and fields such as sig­ nal processing, partial differential equations (PDEs), and image processing is reflected in our state of the art ANHA series. Our vision of modern harmonic analysis includes mathematical areas such as wavelet theory, Banach algebras, classical Fourier analysis, time­ frequency analysis, and fractal geometry, as well as the diverse topics that impinge on them.