On the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff Theorem: non-convergence and prolongation issues

Abstract

ABSTRACT We investigate some topics related to the celebrated Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff Theorem: a non-convergence result and prolongation problems. Given a Banach algebra with identity I, and given , we study the relationship of different issues: the convergence of the BCH series , the existence of a logarithm of , and the convergence of the Mercator-type series which provides a selected logarithm of . We fix general results, among which we provide a non-convergence result for the BCH series, and (by suitable matrix counterexamples) we show that various pathologies can occur. These are related to some recent results, of interest in physics, on closed formulas for the BCH series: while the sum of the BCH series presents several non-convergence issues, these closed formulas can provide a prolongation for the BCH series when it is not convergent. On the other hand, we show by suitable counterexamples that an analytic prolongation of the BCH series can be singular even if the BCH series itself is convergent.