# Untitled Document

Comment on “A simple expression for the terms in the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff series”

Hiroto Kobayashi

Department of Applied Physics, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

## Abstract

It is pointed out that Reinsch’s matrix operation formulation of calculating the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff series \[math-ph/9905012\] is equivalent to the straightforward series expansion. The amount of calculation does not decrease by his method.

Using matrix operations, Reinsch  proposed a simple expression of terms in the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff series of $`\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{exp}x\mathrm{exp}y)`$, where $`x`$ and $`y`$ are noncommutative variables. We here point out that his formulation applies to the series expansion of general functions of noncommutative variables. In fact, the matrix formulation is equivalent to the straightforward series expansion in the sense that the amount of calculation does not decrease by his method.

Let us show in the following the relation between the series expansion and the matrix operation. Suppose that $`a`$ and $`b`$ are polynomials of noncommutative variables $`x,y,z,\mathrm{}`$. We express the polynomials as

$$a=\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}a_i,b=\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}b_i,$$
(1)   
where $`a_i`$ and $`b_i`$ denote the $`i`$th-order terms. When we need to the series expansion of the product $`c=ab`$ up to the $`n`$th order, we define two $`(n+1)\times (n+1)`$ matrices $`A`$ and $`B`$ as

$$A_{ij}=\underset{k=0}{\overset{n}{}}a_k\delta _{i+k,j},B_{ij}=\underset{k=0}{\overset{n}{}}b_k\delta _{i+k,j}.$$
(2)   
We obtain the $`i`$th-order term $`c_i`$ of the product of $`a`$ and $`b`$ as

$$c_i=C_{1,i+1}\mathrm{with}C=AB\mathrm{for}in.$$
(3)   
We derive Eq. (3) in the following way. First we note that

$`ab`$ $`=`$ $`(a_0+a_1+\mathrm{}+a_n+\mathrm{})(b_0+b_1+\mathrm{}+b_n+\mathrm{})`$ (4)   
$`=`$ $`a_0b_0+(a_0b_1+a_1b_0)+\mathrm{}+(a_0b_n+a_1b_{n1}+\mathrm{}+a_nb_0)+\mathrm{}`$   
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}}{\displaystyle \underset{j=0}{\overset{i}{}}}a_jb_{ij},`$   
that is,

$$c_i=\underset{j=0}{\overset{i}{}}a_jb_{ij}.$$
(5)   
On the other hand, the equation $`C=AB`$ is

$$\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}c_0& c_1& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& c_n\\ & c_0& c_1& & \mathrm{}\\ & & \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ & & & \mathrm{}& c_1\\ & & & & c_0\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}a_0& a_1& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& a_n\\ & a_0& a_1& & \mathrm{}\\ & & \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ & & & \mathrm{}& a_1\\ & & & & a_0\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}b_0& b_1& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& b_n\\ & b_0& b_1& & \mathrm{}\\ & & \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ & & & \mathrm{}& b_1\\ & & & & b_0\end{array}\right).$$
(6)   
It is obvious that Eq. (6) yields Eq. (5), and hence Eq. (3) is proved.

Furthermore, the $`i`$th-order term of the summation $`a+b`$ is obtained from $`(A+B)_{1,i+1}`$. Combining this with Eq. (3), we obtain the fact that for a general polynomial $`f(a)`$, the $`i`$th-order term $`[f(a)]_i`$ is given by $`[f(A)]_{1,i+1}`$. Moreover, the matrix $`f(A)`$ has the same form of $`A`$, that is

$$[f(A)]_{ij}=\underset{k=0}{\overset{n}{}}[f(a)]_k\delta _{i+k,j}.$$
(7)   
Thus for two general polynomials $`f(a)`$ and $`g(b)`$, the $`i`$th-order term $`[f(a)g(b)]_i`$ is given by $`[f(A)g(B)]_{1,i+1}`$. A function $`h(f(a)g(b))`$ is also calculated from $`h(f(A)g(B))`$. In the above way, we find that the matrix operation is equivalent to the straightforward series expansion.

Reinsch  specifically calculated $`\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{exp}M\mathrm{exp}N)`$ for two $`(n+1)\times (n+1)`$ matrices $`M`$ and $`N`$ defined as

$$M_{ij}=\delta _{i+1,j}x=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}0& x& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ & 0& x& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ & & 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ & & & \mathrm{}& x\\ & & & & 0\end{array}\right),N_{ij}=\delta _{i+1,j}y=\left(\begin{array}{ccccc}0& y& 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ & 0& y& \mathrm{}& \mathrm{}\\ & & 0& \mathrm{}& 0\\ & & & \mathrm{}& y\\ & & & & 0\end{array}\right).$$
(8)   
As shown above, it is only a special case that $`[\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{exp}M\mathrm{exp}N)]_{1,i+1}`$ gives the $`i`$th-order term of $`\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{exp}x\mathrm{exp}y)`$. (Note that the logarithm and the exponential function of noncommutative variables are defined by their polynomial expansion.) The amount of calculation to obtain the $`i`$th-order term does not decrease by Reinsch’s method. For example, in order to calculate the product of $`\mathrm{exp}x`$ and $`\mathrm{exp}y`$, we need to multiply matrix elements once for the zeroth order, twice for the first order, and three times for the second order, as shown in the following equation:

$$\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& x& \frac{1}{2}x^2\\ 0& 1& x\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right)\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& y& \frac{1}{2}y^2\\ 0& 1& y\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right)=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1& x+y& \frac{1}{2}x^2+xy+\frac{1}{2}y^2\\ 0& 1& x+y\\ 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right).$$
(9)   
The number of multiplication is the same as the corresponding straightforward series expansion.

Finally, we would like to draw attention to the NCAlgebra package for Mathematica , which is useful for series expansions containing noncommutative variables.

I would like to thank Prof. N. Hatano for his useful comments.

 M.W. Reinsch: math-ph/9905012.

 `http://math.ucsd.edu/~ncalg/` .