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Concept
Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula
Summary
In mathematics, the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula is the solution for to the equation
for possibly noncommutative X and Y in the Lie algebra of a Lie group. There are various ways of writing the formula, but all ultimately yield an expression for in Lie algebraic terms, that is, as a formal series (not necessarily convergent) in and and iterated commutators thereof. The first few terms of this series are:
where "" indicates terms involving higher commutators of and . If and are sufficiently small elements of the Lie algebra of a Lie group , the series is convergent. Meanwhile, every element sufficiently close to the identity in can be expressed as for a small in . Thus, we can say that near the identity the group multiplication in —written as —can be expressed in purely Lie algebraic terms. The Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula can be used to give comparatively simple proofs of deep results in the Lie group–Lie algebra correspondence.
If and are sufficiently small matrices, then can be computed as the logarithm of , where the exponentials and the logarithm can be computed as power series. The point of the Baker–Campbell–Hausdorff formula is then the highly nonobvious claim that can be expressed as a series in repeated commutators of and .
Modern expositions of the formula can be found in, among other places, the books of Rossmann and Hall.
The formula is named after Henry Frederick Baker, John Edward Campbell, and Felix Hausdorff who stated its qualitative form, i.e. that only commutators and commutators of commutators, ad infinitum, are needed to express the solution. An earlier statement of the form was adumbrated by Friedrich Schur in 1890 where a convergent power series is given, with terms recursively defined. This qualitative form is what is used in the most important applications, such as the relatively accessible proofs of the Lie correspondence and in quantum field theory. Following Schur, it was noted in print by Campbell (1897); elaborated by Henri Poincaré (1899) and Baker (1902); and systematized geometrically, and linked to the Jacobi identity by Hausdorff (1906).
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