Abstract
We analyse the Gaussian wave packet transform. Based on the Fourier inversion formula and a partition of unity, which is formed by a collection of Gaussian basis functions, a new representation of square-integrable functions is presented. Including a rigorous error analysis, the variants of the wave packet transform are then derived by a discretization of the Fourier integral via different quadrature rules. Based on Gauss-Hermite quadrature, we introduce a new representation of Gaussian wave packets in which the number of basis functions is significantly reduced. Numerical experiments in 1D illustrate the theoretical results.