Gabor Frames: Characterizations and Coarse Structure

Abstract: This survey offers a systematic and streamlined exposition of the most important characterizations of Gabor frames over a lattice. The goal is to collect the most important characterizations of Gabor frames and offer a systematic exposition of these structures. In the center of these characterizations is the duality theorem for Gabor frames. Most characterizations within the $L^2$-theory follow directly from this fundamental duality. In particular, the celebrated characterizations of Janssen and Ron-Shen are consequences of the duality theorem, and the characterization of Zeevi and Zibulski for rational lattices also becomes a corollary. The novelty is the streamlined sequence of proofs, so that most of the structure theory of Gabor frames fits into a single, short article. The only prerequisite is the thorough mastery of the Poisson summation formula and some basic facts about frames and Riesz sequences.