The uncertainty principle for the short-time Fourier transform on finite cyclic groups: cases of equality

Abstract

A well-known version of the uncertainty principle on the cyclic group $\mathbb{Z}_N$ states that for any couple of functions $f,g\in\ell^2(\mathbb{Z}_N)\setminus\{0\}$, the short-time Fourier transform $V_g f$ has support of cardinality at least $N$. This result can be regarded as a time-frequency version of the celebrated Donoho-Stark uncertainty principle on $\mathbb{Z}_N$. Unlike the Donoho-Stark principle, however, a complete identification of the extremals is still missing. In this note we provide an answer to this problem by proving that the support of $V_g f$ has cardinality $N$ if and only if it is a coset of a subgroup of order $N$ of $\mathbb{Z}_N\times \mathbb{Z}_N$. Also, we completely identify the corresponding extremal functions $f,g$. Besides translations and modulations, the symmetries of the problem are encoded by certain metaplectic operators associated with elements of ${\rm SL}(2,\mathbb{Z}_{N/a})$, where $a$ is a divisor of $N$. Partial generalizations are given to finite Abelian groups.