sMark Notes [DRAFT]

Mark M. Tobenkin’s Notes on Math and Other Topics

28 Dec 2020

Matrix Exponential Directional Derivative

We can find a general expression for the derivative:

$$ \left . \frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} \exp(A + \lambda \Delta) \right |_{\lambda = 0} $$

where $A, \Delta \in \mathbb{R}^{n \times n}$ using some linear systems theory. We will show that:

$$ \begin{align} \left . \frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} \exp(A + \lambda \Delta) \right |_{\lambda = 0} &= \exp(A)\int_0^1 \exp(-sA) \Delta \exp(sA) \;ds \label{eq:left-A}\\
&= \left(\int_0^1 \exp(sA) \Delta \exp(-sA) \;ds \right)\exp(A) \label{eq:right-A}\\
\end{align} $$

Proof Sketch: Consider the function: $$ \Phi(t, \lambda) = \exp(t(A + \lambda B)). $$ We are looking to find $\left . \frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} \Phi(1, \lambda) \right |_{\lambda = 0}$.

We know that $\Phi$ is given by a family of solutions of Linear ODEs: $$ \frac{d}{dt} \Phi(t, \lambda) = (A + \lambda \Delta) \Phi(t, \lambda), \qquad \Phi(0, \lambda) = I. $$ The idea to proceed is to find a differential equation for $\frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} \Phi(t, \lambda)$. $$ \begin{align} \left . \frac{d}{dt} \frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} \Phi(t, \lambda)\right |_{\lambda=0} &= \left . \frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} \left(\frac{d}{dt} \Phi(t, \lambda)\right) \right |_{\lambda=0}\\
&= \left . \frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} \left((A + \lambda B)\Phi(t, \lambda)\right) \right |_{\lambda=0}\\
&= A \left . \frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} \Phi(t, \lambda)\right|_{\lambda=0} + B \Phi(t, 0). \end{align} $$ The initial condition for this solution is $\frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} \Phi(0, \lambda) = \frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} I = 0$.

This linear-time-invariant ODE has the solution: $$ \begin{align} \left . \frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} \Phi(1, \lambda) \right |_{\lambda=0} &= \int_0^1 \exp((1-s)A) \Delta \Phi(s, 0) \;ds \\
&= \exp(A)\int_0^1 \exp(-sA) \Delta \exp(sA) \;ds \\
&= \exp(A)\int_0^1 \exp(-sA) \Delta \exp(sA) \;ds \\
\end{align} $$ which proves Equation $\eqref{eq:left-A}$. To prove Equation $\eqref{eq:right-A}$ simply apply the change-of variable $t = 1-s$ to the integral.

There is an interesting connection here in to a property of triangular transition matrices notes in another post in that: $$ \begin{bmatrix} \Phi(1, 0) & \left . \frac{\partial}{\partial \lambda} \Phi(1, \lambda) \right |_{\lambda=0} \\
0 & \Phi(1, 0) \end{bmatrix} = \exp\left(\begin{bmatrix} A & \Delta \\ 0 & A\end{bmatrix}\right). $$