Ambiguity functions, Wigner distributions and Cohen’s class for LCA groups

In this paper we construct a general class of time-frequency representations for LCA groups which parallel Cohen’s class for the real line. For this, we generalize the notion of ambiguity function and Wigner distribution to the setting of general LCA groups in such a way that the Plancherel transform of the ambiguity function coincides with the Wigner distribution. Furthermore, properties of the general ambiguity function and Wigner distribution are studied. In detail we characterize those groups whose ambiguity functions and Wigner distributions vanish at infinity or are squareintegrable. Finally, we explicitly construct Cohen’s class for the group of p-adic numbers, p prime.  2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.