The Kirkwood-Dirac representation associated to the Fourier transform for finite abelian groups: positivity

Abstract

We construct and study the Kirkwood-Dirac (KD) representations naturally associated to the Fourier transform of finite abelian groups $G$. We identify all pure KD-positive states and all KD-real observables for these KD representations. We provide a necessary and sufficient condition ensuring that all KD-positive states are convex combinations of pure KD-positive states. We prove that for $G={\mathbb{Z}}_d$, with $d$ a prime power, this condition is satisfied. We provide examples of abelian groups where it is not. In those cases, the convex set of KD-positive states contains states outside the convex hull of the pure KD-positive states.

17 pages, references added, typos corrected