Fourier and Beyond: Invariance Properties of a Family of Integral Transforms

Cameron L. Williams, Bernhard G. Bodmann, Donald J. Kouri

Published 2014-03-17, updated 2016-07-14Version 4

The Fourier transform is typically seen as closely related to the additive group of real numbers, its characters and its Haar measure. In this paper, we propose an alternative viewpoint; the Fourier transform can be uniquely characterized by an intertwining relation with dilations and by having a Gaussian as an eigenfunction. This broadens the perspective to an entire family of Fourier-like transforms that are uniquely identified by the same dilation property and having Gaussian-like functions as eigenfunctions. We show that these transforms share many properties with the Fourier transform, particularly unitarity, periodicity and eigenvalues. We also establish short-time analogues of these transforms and show a reconstruction property and an orthogonality relation for the short-time transforms.