Frame expansions for Gabor multipliers

Discrete Gabor multipliers are composed of rank one operators. We shall prove, in the case of rank one projection operators, that the generating operators for such multipliers are either Riesz bases (exact frames) or not frames for their closed linear spans. The same dichotomy conclusion is valid for general rank one operators under mild and natural conditions. This is relevant since discrete Gabor multipliers have an emerging role in communications, radar, and waveform design, where redundant frame decompositions are increasingly applicable.