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In
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, the matrix exponential is a
matrix function
In mathematics, every analytic function can be used for defining a matrix function that maps square matrices with complex entries to square matrices of the same size.
This is used for defining the exponential of a matrix, which is involved in th ...
on
square matrices analogous to the ordinary
exponential function. It is used to solve systems of linear differential equations. In the theory of Lie groups, the matrix exponential gives the
exponential map between a matrix
Lie algebra
In mathematics, a Lie algebra (pronounced ) is a vector space \mathfrak g together with an operation called the Lie bracket, an alternating bilinear map \mathfrak g \times \mathfrak g \rightarrow \mathfrak g, that satisfies the Jacobi ident ...
and the corresponding
Lie group
In mathematics, a Lie group (pronounced ) is a group (mathematics), group that is also a differentiable manifold, such that group multiplication and taking inverses are both differentiable.
A manifold is a space that locally resembles Eucli ...
.
Let be an
real or
complex
Complex commonly refers to:
* Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe
** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
matrix
Matrix (: matrices or matrixes) or MATRIX may refer to:
Science and mathematics
* Matrix (mathematics), a rectangular array of numbers, symbols or expressions
* Matrix (logic), part of a formula in prenex normal form
* Matrix (biology), the m ...
. The exponential of , denoted by or , is the matrix given by the
power series
In mathematics, a power series (in one variable) is an infinite series of the form
\sum_^\infty a_n \left(x - c\right)^n = a_0 + a_1 (x - c) + a_2 (x - c)^2 + \dots
where ''a_n'' represents the coefficient of the ''n''th term and ''c'' is a co ...
where
is defined to be the identity matrix
with the same dimensions as
, and . The series always converges, so the exponential of is well-defined.
Equivalently,
for integer-valued , where is the
identity matrix
In linear algebra, the identity matrix of size n is the n\times n square matrix with ones on the main diagonal and zeros elsewhere. It has unique properties, for example when the identity matrix represents a geometric transformation, the obje ...
.
Equivalently, given by the solution to the differential equation
When is an
diagonal matrix
In linear algebra, a diagonal matrix is a matrix in which the entries outside the main diagonal are all zero; the term usually refers to square matrices. Elements of the main diagonal can either be zero or nonzero. An example of a 2×2 diagon ...
then will be an diagonal matrix with each diagonal element equal to the ordinary
exponential
Exponential may refer to any of several mathematical topics related to exponentiation, including:
* Exponential function, also:
**Matrix exponential, the matrix analogue to the above
*Exponential decay, decrease at a rate proportional to value
* Ex ...
applied to the corresponding diagonal element of .
Properties
Elementary properties
Let and be complex matrices and let and be arbitrary complex numbers. We denote the
identity matrix
In linear algebra, the identity matrix of size n is the n\times n square matrix with ones on the main diagonal and zeros elsewhere. It has unique properties, for example when the identity matrix represents a geometric transformation, the obje ...
by and the
zero matrix
In mathematics, particularly linear algebra, a zero matrix or null matrix is a matrix all of whose entries are zero. It also serves as the additive identity of the additive group of m \times n matrices, and is denoted by the symbol O or 0 followe ...
by 0. The matrix exponential satisfies the following properties.
We begin with the properties that are immediate consequences of the definition as a power series:
*
* , where denotes the
transpose
In linear algebra, the transpose of a Matrix (mathematics), matrix is an operator which flips a matrix over its diagonal;
that is, it switches the row and column indices of the matrix by producing another matrix, often denoted by (among other ...
of .
* , where denotes the
conjugate transpose
In mathematics, the conjugate transpose, also known as the Hermitian transpose, of an m \times n complex matrix \mathbf is an n \times m matrix obtained by transposing \mathbf and applying complex conjugation to each entry (the complex conjugate ...
of .
* If is
invertible
In mathematics, the concept of an inverse element generalises the concepts of opposite () and reciprocal () of numbers.
Given an operation denoted here , and an identity element denoted , if , one says that is a left inverse of , and that ...
then
The next key result is this one:
* If
then
.
The proof of this identity is the same as the standard power-series argument for the corresponding identity for the exponential of real numbers. That is to say, ''as long as
and
commute'', it makes no difference to the argument whether
and
are numbers or matrices. It is important to note that this identity typically does not hold if
and
do not commute (see
Golden-Thompson inequality below).
Consequences of the preceding identity are the following:
*
*
Using the above results, we can easily verify the following claims. If is
symmetric
Symmetry () in everyday life refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, the term has a more precise definition and is usually used to refer to an object that is invariant under some transformations ...
then is also symmetric, and if is
skew-symmetric then is
orthogonal
In mathematics, orthogonality (mathematics), orthogonality is the generalization of the geometric notion of ''perpendicularity''. Although many authors use the two terms ''perpendicular'' and ''orthogonal'' interchangeably, the term ''perpendic ...
. If is
Hermitian {{Short description, none
Numerous things are named after the French mathematician Charles Hermite (1822–1901):
Hermite
* Cubic Hermite spline, a type of third-degree spline
* Gauss–Hermite quadrature, an extension of Gaussian quadrature me ...
then is also Hermitian, and if is
skew-Hermitian then is
unitary
Unitary may refer to:
Mathematics
* Unitary divisor
* Unitary element
* Unitary group
* Unitary matrix
* Unitary morphism
* Unitary operator
* Unitary transformation
* Unitary representation
* Unitarity (physics)
* ''E''-unitary inverse semigr ...
.
Finally, a
Laplace transform
In mathematics, the Laplace transform, named after Pierre-Simon Laplace (), is an integral transform that converts a Function (mathematics), function of a Real number, real Variable (mathematics), variable (usually t, in the ''time domain'') to a f ...
of matrix exponentials amounts to the
resolvent,
for all sufficiently large positive values of .
Linear differential equation systems
One of the reasons for the importance of the matrix exponential is that it can be used to solve systems of linear
ordinary differential equations
In mathematics, an ordinary differential equation (ODE) is a differential equation (DE) dependent on only a single independent variable. As with any other DE, its unknown(s) consists of one (or more) function(s) and involves the derivatives ...
. The solution of
where is a constant matrix and ''y'' is a column vector, is given by
The matrix exponential can also be used to solve the inhomogeneous equation
See the section on
applications
Application may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks
** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...
below for examples.
There is no closed-form solution for differential equations of the form
where is not constant, but the
Magnus series
In mathematics and physics, the Magnus expansion, named after Wilhelm Magnus (1907–1990), provides an exponential representation of the product integral solution of a first-order homogeneous linear differential equation for a linear operator. I ...
gives the solution as an infinite sum.
The determinant of the matrix exponential
By
Jacobi's formula
In matrix calculus, Jacobi's formula expresses the derivative of the determinant of a matrix ''A'' in terms of the adjugate of ''A'' and the derivative of ''A''., Part Three, Section 8.3
If is a differentiable map from the real numbers to matr ...
, for any complex square matrix the following
trace identity holds:
In addition to providing a computational tool, this formula demonstrates that a matrix exponential is always an
invertible matrix
In linear algebra, an invertible matrix (''non-singular'', ''non-degenarate'' or ''regular'') is a square matrix that has an inverse. In other words, if some other matrix is multiplied by the invertible matrix, the result can be multiplied by a ...
. This follows from the fact that the right hand side of the above equation is always non-zero, and so , which implies that must be invertible.
In the real-valued case, the formula also exhibits the map
to not be
surjective
In mathematics, a surjective function (also known as surjection, or onto function ) is a function such that, for every element of the function's codomain, there exists one element in the function's domain such that . In other words, for a f ...
, in contrast to the complex case mentioned earlier. This follows from the fact that, for real-valued matrices, the right-hand side of the formula is always positive, while there exist invertible matrices with a negative determinant.
Real symmetric matrices
The matrix exponential of a real symmetric matrix is positive definite. Let
be an real symmetric matrix and
a column vector. Using the elementary properties of the matrix exponential and of symmetric matrices, we have:
Since
is invertible, the equality only holds for
, and we have
for all non-zero
. Hence
is positive definite.
The exponential of sums
For any real numbers (scalars) and we know that the exponential function satisfies . The same is true for commuting matrices. If matrices and commute (meaning that ), then,
However, for matrices that do not commute the above equality does not necessarily hold.
The Lie product formula
Even if and do not commute, the exponential can be computed by the
Lie product formula
Using a large finite to approximate the above is basis of the Suzuki-Trotter expansion, often used in
numerical time evolution.
The Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula
In the other direction, if and are sufficiently small (but not necessarily commuting) matrices, we have
where may be computed as a series in
commutator
In mathematics, the commutator gives an indication of the extent to which a certain binary operation fails to be commutative. There are different definitions used in group theory and ring theory.
Group theory
The commutator of two elements, ...
s of and by means of the
Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula
In mathematics, the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula gives the value of Z that solves the equation
e^X e^Y = e^Z
for possibly noncommutative and in the Lie algebra of a Lie group. There are various ways of writing the formula, but all ultima ...
:
where the remaining terms are all iterated commutators involving and . If and commute, then all the commutators are zero and we have simply .
Inequalities for exponentials of Hermitian matrices
For
Hermitian matrices
In mathematics, a Hermitian matrix (or self-adjoint matrix) is a complex square matrix that is equal to its own conjugate transpose—that is, the element in the -th row and -th column is equal to the complex conjugate of the element in the -th ...
there is a notable theorem related to the Matrix trace">trace
Trace may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''Trace'' (Son Volt album), 1995
* ''Trace'' (Died Pretty album), 1993
* Trace (band), a Dutch progressive rock band
* ''The Trace'' (album), by Nell
Other uses in arts and entertainment
* ...
of matrix exponentials.
If and are Hermitian matrices, then
There is no requirement of commutativity. There are counterexamples to show that the Golden–Thompson inequality cannot be extended to three matrices – and, in any event, is not guaranteed to be real for Hermitian , , . However,
Lieb proved that it can be generalized to three matrices if we modify the expression as follows
The exponential map
The exponential of a matrix is always an
invertible matrix
In linear algebra, an invertible matrix (''non-singular'', ''non-degenarate'' or ''regular'') is a square matrix that has an inverse. In other words, if some other matrix is multiplied by the invertible matrix, the result can be multiplied by a ...
. The inverse matrix of is given by . This is analogous to the fact that the exponential of a complex number is always nonzero. The matrix exponential then gives us a map
from the space of all ''n'' × ''n'' matrices to the
general linear group
In mathematics, the general linear group of degree n is the set of n\times n invertible matrices, together with the operation of ordinary matrix multiplication. This forms a group, because the product of two invertible matrices is again inve ...
of degree , i.e. the
group
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...
of all ''n'' × ''n'' invertible matrices. In fact, this map is
surjective
In mathematics, a surjective function (also known as surjection, or onto function ) is a function such that, for every element of the function's codomain, there exists one element in the function's domain such that . In other words, for a f ...
which means that every invertible matrix can be written as the exponential of some other matrix (for this, it is essential to consider the field C of complex numbers and not R).
For any two matrices and ,
where denotes an arbitrary
matrix norm
In the field of mathematics, norms are defined for elements within a vector space. Specifically, when the vector space comprises matrices, such norms are referred to as matrix norms. Matrix norms differ from vector norms in that they must also ...
. It follows that the exponential map is
continuous
Continuity or continuous may refer to:
Mathematics
* Continuity (mathematics), the opposing concept to discreteness; common examples include
** Continuous probability distribution or random variable in probability and statistics
** Continuous ...
and
Lipschitz continuous
In mathematical analysis, Lipschitz continuity, named after Germany, German mathematician Rudolf Lipschitz, is a strong form of uniform continuity for function (mathematics), functions. Intuitively, a Lipschitz continuous function is limited in h ...
on
compact
Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to:
* Interstate compact, a type of agreement used by U.S. states
* Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines
* Compact government, a t ...
subsets of .
The map
defines a
smooth curve in the general linear group which passes through the identity element at .
In fact, this gives a
one-parameter subgroup of the general linear group since
The derivative of this curve (or
tangent vector
In mathematics, a tangent vector is a vector that is tangent to a curve or surface at a given point. Tangent vectors are described in the differential geometry of curves in the context of curves in R''n''. More generally, tangent vectors are ...
) at a point ''t'' is given by
The derivative at is just the matrix ''X'', which is to say that ''X'' generates this one-parameter subgroup.
More generally, for a generic -dependent exponent, ,
Taking the above expression outside the integral sign and expanding the integrand with the help of the
Hadamard lemma one can obtain the following useful expression for the derivative of the matrix exponent,
The coefficients in the expression above are different from what appears in the exponential. For a closed form, see derivative of the exponential map.
Directional derivatives when restricted to Hermitian matrices
Let
be a
Hermitian matrix with distinct eigenvalues. Let
be its eigen-decomposition where
is a unitary matrix whose columns are the eigenvectors of
,
is its conjugate transpose, and
the vector of corresponding eigenvalues. Then, for any
Hermitian matrix
, the
directional derivative
In multivariable calculus, the directional derivative measures the rate at which a function changes in a particular direction at a given point.
The directional derivative of a multivariable differentiable (scalar) function along a given vect ...
of
at
in the direction
is
[ See Theorem 3.3.]
[ See Propositions 1 and 2.
]
where
, the operator
denotes the Hadamard product, and, for all
, the matrix
is defined as
In addition, for any
Hermitian matrix
, the second directional derivative in directions
and
is
where the matrix-valued function
is defined, for all
, as
with
Computing the matrix exponential
Finding reliable and accurate methods to compute the matrix exponential is difficult, and this is still a topic of considerable current research in mathematics and numerical analysis.
Matlab
MATLAB (an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementat ...
,
GNU Octave
GNU Octave is a scientific programming language for scientific computing and numerical computation. Octave helps in solving linear and nonlinear problems numerically, and for performing other numerical experiments using a language that is mostly ...
,
R, and
SciPy
SciPy (pronounced "sigh pie") is a free and open-source Python library used for scientific computing and technical computing.
SciPy contains modules for optimization, linear algebra, integration, interpolation, special functions, fast Fourier ...
all use the
Padé approximant
In mathematics, a Padé approximant is the "best" approximation of a function near a specific point by a rational function of given order. Under this technique, the approximant's power series agrees with the power series of the function it is ap ...
. In this section, we discuss methods that are applicable in principle to any matrix, and which can be carried out explicitly for small matrices. Subsequent sections describe methods suitable for numerical evaluation on large matrices.
Diagonalizable case
If a matrix is
diagonal
In geometry, a diagonal is a line segment joining two vertices of a polygon or polyhedron, when those vertices are not on the same edge. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word ''diagonal'' derives from the ancient Greek � ...
:
then its exponential can be obtained by exponentiating each entry on the main diagonal:
This result also allows one to exponentiate
diagonalizable matrices. If
then
which is especially easy to compute when is diagonal.
Application of
Sylvester's formula yields the same result. (To see this, note that addition and multiplication, hence also exponentiation, of diagonal matrices is equivalent to element-wise addition and multiplication, and hence exponentiation; in particular, the "one-dimensional" exponentiation is felt element-wise for the diagonal case.)
Example : Diagonalizable
For example, the matrix
can be diagonalized as
Thus,
Nilpotent case
A matrix is
nilpotent
In mathematics, an element x of a ring (mathematics), ring R is called nilpotent if there exists some positive integer n, called the index (or sometimes the degree), such that x^n=0.
The term, along with its sister Idempotent (ring theory), idem ...
if for some integer ''q''. In this case, the matrix exponential can be computed directly from the series expansion, as the series terminates after a finite number of terms:
Since the series has a finite number of steps, it is a matrix polynomial, which can be
computed efficiently.
General case
Using the Jordan–Chevalley decomposition
By the
Jordan–Chevalley decomposition, any
matrix ''X'' with complex entries can be expressed as
where
* ''A'' is diagonalizable
* ''N'' is nilpotent
* ''A''
commutes with ''N''
This means that we can compute the exponential of ''X'' by reducing to the previous two cases:
Note that we need the commutativity of ''A'' and ''N'' for the last step to work.
Using the Jordan canonical form
A closely related method is, if the field is
algebraically closed
In mathematics, a field is algebraically closed if every non-constant polynomial in (the univariate polynomial ring with coefficients in ) has a root in . In other words, a field is algebraically closed if the fundamental theorem of algebra h ...
, to work with the
Jordan form
\begin
\lambda_1 1\hphantom\hphantom\\
\hphantom\lambda_1 1\hphantom\\
\hphantom\lambda_1\hphantom\\
\hphantom\lambda_2 1\hphantom\hphantom\\
\hphantom\hphantom\lambda_2\hphantom\\
\hphantom\lambda_3\hphantom\\
\hphantom\ddots\hphantom\\
...
of . Suppose that where is the Jordan form of . Then
Also, since
Therefore, we need only know how to compute the matrix exponential of a
Jordan block
In the mathematical discipline of matrix theory, a Jordan matrix, named after Camille Jordan, is a block diagonal matrix over a ring (whose identities are the zero 0 and one 1), where each block along the diagonal, called a Jordan block, has th ...
. But each Jordan block is of the form
where is a special nilpotent matrix. The matrix exponential of is then given by
Projection case
If is a
projection matrix
In statistics, the projection matrix (\mathbf), sometimes also called the influence matrix or hat matrix (\mathbf), maps the vector of response values (dependent variable values) to the vector of fitted values (or predicted values). It describes ...
(i.e. is
idempotent
Idempotence (, ) is the property of certain operations in mathematics and computer science whereby they can be applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application. The concept of idempotence arises in a number of pl ...
: ), its matrix exponential is:
Deriving this by expansion of the exponential function, each power of reduces to which becomes a common factor of the sum:
Rotation case
For a simple rotation in which the perpendicular unit vectors and specify a plane, the
rotation matrix
In linear algebra, a rotation matrix is a transformation matrix that is used to perform a rotation (mathematics), rotation in Euclidean space. For example, using the convention below, the matrix
:R = \begin
\cos \theta & -\sin \theta \\
\sin \t ...
can be expressed in terms of a similar exponential function involving a
generator and angle .
The formula for the exponential results from reducing the powers of in the series expansion and identifying the respective series coefficients of and with and respectively. The second expression here for is the same as the expression for in the article containing the derivation of the
generator, .
In two dimensions, if