Effective classical Liouville-like evolution equation for the quantum phase-space dynamics

A model for the evolution of a quantum particle in the phase plane is derived. The quasi-distribution function is decomposed into a suitable over-complete basis of coherent states. In this approach, a coarse grain length scale is introduced by using the spread of the coherent states. The obtained evolution system is completely equivalent to the Wigner formulation of the quantum mechanics. It shows some analogy with the von Neumann approach and the particle in the cell method in classical plasma physics. Differing from the usual formulation of the quantum phase space, given in terms of infinite-order partial differential equations, in this model, the evolution equations of the second differential order are expressed by a hierarchy of coupled functions (the first term being the Husimi function). The resulting formulation reveals itself to be particularly close to the classical description of the particles motion. This formal analogy is useful to gain new physical insights and to profit from numerical methods developed for classical systems.