A Remark on Commuting Operator Exponentials

Author(s): Edgar M. E. Wermuth

Source: Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society , Jun., 1997, Vol. 125, No. 6
(Jun., 1997), pp. 1685-1688
Published by: American Mathematical Society

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 PROCEEDINGS OF THE
AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
Volume 125, Number 6, June 1997, Pages 1685-1688
S 0002-9939(97)03643-5

A REMARK ON COMMUTING OPERATOR EXPONENTIALS

EDGAR M. E. WERMUTH

(Communicated by Theodore W. Gamelin)

ABSTRACT. In a previous paper the author proved that for square matrices
with algebraic entries exp(A)exp(B) =exp(B)exp(A) if and only if AB = BA.
This result is extended here to bounded operators on an arbitrary Banach
space.

The simple and well-known fact that

AB = BA implies eAeB =e eA = eA+B

where A and B may be square matrices of equal order, bounded operators on

a Banach space, or elements of a unical Banach algebra, has no obvious general
converse.
An easy case is that of selfadjoint operators on a Hilbert space:
If A and B are bounded selfadjoint operators on a Hilbert space then

(1) e e =eBeA f and only if AB = BA;

moreover,

(2) eAeB = eA+B if and only if AB = BA.

To prove the 'only if' part of (1), observe that if A is selfadjoint, then eA is
positive, and the positive square root eA/2 can be approximated by a sequence of
polynomials in eA (for a simple iterative construction of suitable polynomials, due
to C. Visser, see, e.g., [8, p. 261f.], or [16, p. 222ff.]; a more general statement is
[4, Theorem 11.3.5]). Hence eAeB = eBeA implies eA/2neB/2n = eB/2 eA/2n for all
n E N. Expanding the power series on both sides leads to

AB + 0(2-n) = BA + 0(2-n) (n -x oc),

whence AB = BA.
The second equivalence is a trivial consequence of the first one, since (eAeB)* =
B A
e e

Received by the editors May 9, 1995 and, in revised form, September 6, 1995.
1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 39B42, 47A60, 30E10.
Key words and phrases. Commuting exponential, Dunford's integral, Runge's theorem.
For valuable comments I thank Heinrich Bock, Robert B. Burckel, Hans-Glinter Meier, and
the referee.

(?)1997 American Mathematical Society

1685

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 1686 EDGAR M. E. WERMUTH

There is a more general version of (1) in the matrix case: For square matrices of
equal order and with algebraic entries1 eAeB = eBeA if and only if AB = BA ([14,
Theorem 1]; see also [1, 13, 11] and the interesting surveys [2] and [12]; a thorough
treatment of matrix exponentials is given in [5]). We now extend this result to
arbitrary bounded operators on a Banach space.

Definition. We call a set A of complex numbers 27ri-congruence-free, if there are

no two different elements Al, A2 E A such that Al _ A2 (mod 2iri) .

Theorem. Let A and B be bounded operators on a Banach space with 27ri-congru-

ence-free spectra. Then

eAeB = eBeA if and only if AB = BA.

Remark. The restriction concerning the spectra of A and B cannot be dispensed

with, as is seen by simple two-dimensional examples:

A= (0 ? ) implies eA = ,

but there are normal matrices B such that AB : BA, e.g.

B = t ( )(t E (C \ 101).

Proof. Of course, we need only treat the 'only if' part.

Let a(A) denote the spectrum of A. Then

(o"(A) + 2kiri) n a(A) = 0

for k E Z \ {0}.
The spectrum v(A) being compact, there is an ? > 0 such that with
D := U,(u(A)) := {z E C: Iz - Al < e for some A E a(A)}
we have

DO U (D+2kiri)=0.
kEZ\{O}

This implies that the mapping

z h eZ (z E D)

is invective whence it has a holomorphic inverse (e.g., [3, Corollary 5.78] or [9,
Theorem 10.33])

f eD -) D

such that

f (ez) = z (z E D).
Now we choose a finite subcover (B,(z) := ({z
N

U Be/2(zj)
j=1

1In fact, the proof in [14] shows that the conclusion holds for arbitrary matrices with 27ri-
congruence-free spectra (see below for a definition of this notion), algebraic entries being just an
illustrative sufficient condition for this spectral property.

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 A REMARK ON COMMUTING OPERATOR EXPONENTIALS 1687

of the open cover UZEI(A) B/2(z) of a(A); we put

N

K : U BE/2(ZJ).
j=1

This compact set K has a boundary AK consisting of finitely many closed Jordan
curves with a positive distance from v(A), and

a(A) c K c D.

According to Dunford's functional calculus (see, e.g., [6, chap. 4], [15, p. 225ff.]
and [10, chap. 10]) we thus have

e =y2i/ ez(z-A) dz.

From Runge's theorem (see, e.g., [3, chap. 8] or [9, chap. 1

a sequence {r } of rational functions with poles outside eK such that r (z) - f(z)
uniformly for z E eK. Writing

r (z) = Z
qn (Z)

where all zeros of the polynomials qn lie outside eK, we conclude that qn(eA) is
invertible and qn(ez) is holomorphic in a neighbourhood of K, and we have

rn(eA) = pn(eA)(q (eA))-1

= 2iri JK rn(ez)(z A) -dz,

Irn(eA)AII -A 0 (n-* oo).

An analogous reasoning concerning B leads to a sequence {Sn4 of rational functions
such that

IIsn(eB)BII -- 0 (n -*co).
Since

rn(eA)sn(eB) = sn(eB)rn(eA),

the conclusion follows. D

We implicitly assumed the Banach space to be a complex one; the extension of

the theorem to real Banach spaces by means of complexification (see [7, chap. 1]) is
trivial. Moreover, the theorem and its proof are valid for unical Banach algebras,
too. But this is no true generalization, since any such algebra is isomorphic to an
algebra of bounded operators on a Banach space (see [7, chap. 1] or [10, chap. 10]).
Even in the case of two-dimensional matrices the equivalence (2) does not hold
under the weaker assumption of 2iri-congruence-free spectra ([14, p. 128]). Thus
there remains an important open problem in the general case: To find a natural
additional assumption (analogous to the one in the Theorem) which together with
eAeB = eA+B implies AB = BA.

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 1688 EDGAR M. E. WERMUTH

REFERENCES

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ZENTRALINSTITUT FUR ANGEWANDTE MATHEMATIK, FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM JOLICH GMBH,

POSTFACH 1913, D-52425 JOLICH, GERMANY
E-mail address: e .m. e .wermuthkffa-juelich. de
Current address: FBAllgemeinwissenschaften und Informatik, Georg-Simon-Ohm-FH Niirnberg,
Postfach 210320, D-90121 Niirnberg, Germany
E-mail address: edgar .wermuth~ai .fh-nuernberg .de

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