Koopman–von Neumann and Weyl–Wigner Phase-Space Formulation of Inviscid Euler Flows

We develop a unified Koopman–von Neumann (KvN) operator and Weyl–Wigner phase-space framework for inviscid ideal (barotropic) Euler flows. Our approach reformulates the nonlinear fluid dynamics as a linear KvN evolution on an enlarged field phase space, thereby enabling us to apply tools developed for quantum mechanics (Weyl quantization, Moyal ⋆-products, and Wigner functionals) to a classical fluid. We construct the appropriate KvN generator (including the required Jacobian term for unitarity) and derive the evolution equation for the corresponding Wigner functional. This framework clarifies when the classical Liouville (Vlasov) description is exact—namely, in quadratic or linear regimes where the Moyal bracket reduces to the Poisson bracket—and when higher-order quantum-like corrections become significant in fully nonlinear regimes. As an analytic example, we obtain a closed-form Wigner solution for a one-dimensional Burgers flow (pressureless Euler) and verify, term by term, that it reproduces the expected Liouville transport (with distributional contributions at the shock). We also compare the phase-space approach with a kinetic (Vlasov–monokinetic) formulation and outline the extension of the framework to three-dimensional flows using a Clebsch variable representation.