Fundamental matrix (linear differential equation)

In mathematics, a fundamental matrix of a system of n homogeneous linear ordinary differential equations

{\dot {\mathbf {x} }}(t)=A(t)\mathbf {x} (t)

is a matrix-valued function $\Psi (t)$ whose columns are linearly independent solutions of the system. Then the general solution to the system can be written as $\mathbf {x} =\Psi (t)\mathbf {c}$ , where $\mathbf {c}$ ranges over constant vectors (written as column vectors of height n).

One can show that a matrix-valued function $\Psi$ is a fundamental matrix of ${\dot {\mathbf {x} }}(t)=A(t)\mathbf {x} (t)$ if and only if ${\dot {\Psi }}(t)=A(t)\Psi (t)$ and $\Psi$ is a non-singular matrix for all $t$ .^[1]

Control theory

The fundamental matrix is used to express the state-transition matrix, an essential component in the solution of a system of linear ordinary differential equations.

References

^ Chi-Tsong Chen (1998). Linear System Theory and Design (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press,. ISBN 978-0195117776.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

[1] Chi-Tsong Chen (1998). Linear System Theory and Design (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press,. ISBN 978-0195117776.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

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