Deformation quantization of the Pais–Uhlenbeck fourth order oscillator

We analyze the quantization of the Pais–Uhlenbeck fourth order oscillator within the framework of deformation quantization. Our approach exploits the Noether symmetries of the system by proposing integrals of motion as the variables to obtain a solution to the ⋆⋆-genvalue equation, namely the Wigner function. We also obtain, by means of a quantum canonical transformation the wave function associated to the Schrödinger equation of the system. We show that unitary evolution of the system is guaranteed by means of the quantum canonical transformation and via the properties of the constructed Wigner function, even in the so called equal frequency limit of the model, in agreement with recent results.