In mathematics, the Segal–Shale–Weil distribution is a distribution (i.e. a generalized function, not a probability distribution) based on metaplectomorphisms of a plane of two canonical conjugate variables; such as time and frequency.
This work was pioneered by Irving Segal, a mathematician at MIT.
Metaplectomorphisms, based on the metaplectic group (the double covering of the symplectic group), are useful in the field of chirplet analysis, since they define q-chirplets (quadratic chirplets).