When does exp(A) == exp.(A)?

@dlfivefifty, you posted a link above with one (numerical) answer to your own question:

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Not a very convincing answer… even the complex explicit example is not convincing as there’s no proof…anyways it’s a silly question :man_shrugging:

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Just to be fair, you are asking for ≈ so @Mason computation is a valid “proof” :wink:

My original question definitely said ==

My fault, I read the tittle not the original question :sweat_smile:

For any projection matrix P, P^2=P and e^P=I+(e-1)P. If P=\begin{bmatrix}x_1&y_1\\y_2&x_2\end{bmatrix}, then the first equation implies

\begin{align*} x_i^2+y_1y_2&=x_i\\ y_i(x_1+x_2)&=y_i \end{align*}

and the second implies

\begin{align*} 1+(e-1)x_i&=e^{x_i}\\ (e-1)y_i&=e^{y_i} \end{align*}

Solving these eight equations over the complex numbers is left as an exercise for the reader :wink:. I’d imagine Mathematica could do it with enough computation time.

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With some effort and interval arithmetic you can convert it into a proper proof (you just tweak the proof of convergence of Newton : if you are at a point x where F is small enough, F’ is inversible and F’’ is bounded in a ball around x, then there is a solution close to x). Agreed it’s a silly question though :slight_smile:

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This vaguely reminds me of a fun math puzzle. Find a function f from R to R such that f^-1(x)=f'(x). (For bonus points, such that f^-1(x)=d^n*f/dx^n(x) ie the nth derivative is the inverse).

Not sure if you are talking about the following

Is there a one-to one and onto function f:(0, \infty) \longrightarrow(0, \infty) such that f^{\prime}=f^{-1}?

The answer is yes, and involves golden ratio (at least the one I found)…

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It’s not terribly difficult to prove. If A is a matrix of the form \begin{pmatrix} a & b & b \\ b & a & b \\ b & b & a \end{pmatrix} it can be diagonalized (eigenvalues are a - b, a - b, a + 2b) and it’s straightforward to compute e^A in closed form as a matrix of the same form as A with

\begin{align} a' &= \frac{2e^{a-b} + e^{a+2b}}{3} \\ b' &= \frac{e^{a+2b}-e^{a-b}}{3} \end{align}

To have exp(A) = exp.(A) we need a' = e^a and b' = e^b which is also straightforward to solve to

\begin{align} e^a &= -\frac{4}{3} \\ e^b &= -2 \end{align}

(unique up to that point) and the complex solution follows.

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