Decomposition of Time-Ordered Products and Path-Ordered Exponentials

The well-known Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff theorem in Lie theory says that the logarithm of a noncommutative product e X e Y can be expressed in terms of iterated commutators of X and Y. This paper provides a gentle introduction t{\'o} Ecalle's mould calculus and shows how it allows for a short proof of the above result, together with the classical Dynkin explicit formula [Dy47] for the logarithm, as well as another formula recently obtained by T. Kimura [Ki17] for the product o...

In this pedagogical note I present the operator form of Wick's theorem, i.e. a procedure to bring a product of 1-particle creation and destruction operators to normal order, with respect to some reference many-body state. Both the static and the time-ordered cases are presented. For the latter, in particular, I provide a simple proof.

When two operators $A$ and $B$ do not commute, the calculation of the exponential operator $e^{A+B}$ is a difficult and crucial problem. The applications are vast and diversified: to name but a few examples, quantum evolutions, product formulas, quantum control, Zeno effect. The latter are of great interest in quantum applications and quantum technologies. We present here a historical survey of results and techniques, and discuss differences and similarities. We also highligh...

We describe a unification of several apparently unrelated factorizations arisen from quantum field theory, vertex operator algebras, combinatorics and numerical methods in differential equations. The unification is given by a Birkhoff type decomposition that was obtained from the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula in our study of the Hopf algebra approach of Connes and Kreimer to renormalization in perturbative quantum field theory. There we showed that the Birkhoff decompositi...

The general decomposition theory of exponential operators is briefly reviewed. A general scheme to construct independent determining equations for the relevant decomposition parameters is proposed using Lyndon words. Explicit formulas of the coefficients are derived.

In this paper, we derive formal general formulas for noncommutative exponentiation and the exponential function, while also revisiting an unrecognized, and yet powerful theorem. These tools are subsequently applied to derive counterparts for the exponential identity $e^{A+B} = e^A e^B$ and the binomial theorem $(A+B)^n = \sum \binom{n}{k} A^k B^{n-k}$ when the commutator $[B, A]$ is either an arbitrary quadratic polynomial or a monomial in $A$ or $B$. Analogous formulas are f...

The Lie-Trotter formula $e^{\hat{A}+\hat{B}} = \lim_{N\to \infty} (e^{\hat{A}/N} e^{\hat{B}/N})^N$ is of great utility in a variety of quantum problems ranging from the theory of path integrals and Monte Carlo methods in theoretical chemistry, to many-body and thermostatistical calculations. We generalize it for the q-exponential function $e_q (x) = [1+ (1-q) x]^{(1/(1-q))}$ (with $e_1(x)=e^x$), and prove $e_q(\hat{A}+\hat{B}+(1-q) [\hat{A}\hat{B}+\hat{B}\hat{A}] /2) = \lim_{...

In this paper we consider a phase space path integral for general time-dependent quantum operations, not necessarily unitary. We obtain the path integral for a completely positive quantum operation satisfied Lindblad equation (quantum Markovian master equation). We consider the path integral for quantum operation with a simple infinitesimal generator.

In this paper, a method to solve functionally commutative time- dependent linear homogeneous differential equation is discussed. We apply this technique to solve some dynamical quantum problems.

We explicitly describe an expansion of $e^{A+B}$ as an infinite sum of the products of $B$ multiplied by the exponential function of $A$. This is the explicit description of the Zassenhaus formula. We also express the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula in a different manner.