0

I'm trying to derive the following equation using a Riemann sum formulation only

$$\frac{d}{d t}e^{A(t)} = \int_0^1 ds \quad e^{sA(t)}(\frac{d A(t)}{dt})e^{(1-s)A(t)}$$

What I've done so far is make sure I understand how to take the derivative of $e^{A(t)}$ for matrix $A$ and continuous parameter $t$:

$$\frac{d}{dt}e^{A(t)} = \frac{d}{dt}(\lim_{N\to \infty} (1 + \frac{A}{N})^N) = \lim_{N\to \infty} \sum_k^{N}(1 + \frac{A}{N})^{N-k} \frac{1}{N}\frac{dA}{dt} (1 + \frac{A}{N})^{k-1}$$

Here's a wiki page that may be relevant.

Now, the formula above makes perfect sense; it's just a matter of accounting for the non-commutativity of $A$ and carrying out the derivative of the limit definition of the exponential correctly. I see how the limit and sum together are implicitly an integral, but I can't seem to figure out the substitution correctly. It's obvious that since we're taking the limit as $N$ goes to infinity that I need to divide $k$ into infinitesimal chunks, so define $s = k/N$. This would make the $1/N$ term in the derivative expression I have above become $\Delta s$ since $k$ is an integer and summing over it would make $\Delta k = 1$ for all $k$. From here, my trouble is in how to get the exponents in the exponential terms correct.

Here's some of my work. I'm not sure if this is correct or not.

  • 2
    Why must you pick Riemann sums and this expression of exponentials to be the method? There are many other possible proofs, and something might be easier to understand. – naturallyInconsistent Jan 12 '24 at 04:30
  • Possible duplicate by OP: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/796986/2451 – Qmechanic Jan 12 '24 at 05:00
  • 1
    Hi Giovanni Brown. Welcome to Phys.SE. Please don't repost a closed question in a new entry. Instead, you are supposed to edit the original question within the original entry. – Qmechanic Jan 12 '24 at 05:01
  • @Qmechanic yes I did that by explicitly stating I'd like to derive this in a specific way, specifically a grounds up direct approach without any gamma functions or integral identities nor the adjoint operation – Giovanni Brown Jan 12 '24 at 05:49
  • @naturallyInconsistent the Riemann sum is what is mentally the most understandable to me, then I can move on to other derivations that may be a bit less direct – Giovanni Brown Jan 12 '24 at 05:51
  • Try the argument after Equation (7) in this: https://webhome.phy.duke.edu/~mehen/760/ProblemSets/BCH.pdf – naturallyInconsistent Jan 12 '24 at 07:10
  • @naturallyInconsistent thank you so much man!! – Giovanni Brown Jan 12 '24 at 07:15
  • That is precisely what I was saying in the first comment. Trying to get you to widen your search so that a vastly easier argument is available. – naturallyInconsistent Jan 12 '24 at 07:24

0 Answers0