On a problem of Daubechies (Q1871749)

An orthonormal wavelet (associated with dilation factor \(a>1\)) is a function \(\psi\in L^2(\mathbb{R})\) such that the system \(\{a^{j/2}\psi(a^jx- k): j,k\in\mathbb{Z}\}\) is an orthogonal basis in \(L^2(\mathbb{R})\). This paper gives a complete answer to a question in \textit{I. Daubechies's} book ``Ten lectures on wavelets'' (1992; Zbl 0776.42018)] if there exists an orthonormal wavelet (associated with an irrational dilation factor \(a> 1\)) with good time-frequency localization. The author shows that the answer is negative for any irrational \(a> 1\) in the case of orthonormal wavelets as well as orthonormal multiwavelets. Note that \textit{C. K. Chui} and \textit{X. Shi} [Appl. Comput. Harmon. Anal. 9, No. 3, 243-264 (2000; Zbl 0967.42023)] have shown this for almost all irrational \(a>1\) and for orthonormal wavelets.