A longstanding problem in Gabor theory is to identify time-frequency shifting lattices aZ×bZ and ideal window functions χI on intervals I of length c such that {e−2πinbtχI(t−ma): (m,n)∈Z×Z} are Gabor frames for the space of all square-integrable functions on the real line.

In this paper, the authors create a time-domain approach for Gabor frames, introduce novel techniques involving invariant sets of non-contractive and non-measure-preserving transformations on the line, and provide a complete answer to the above abc-problem for Gabor systems.