Computation of functions of Hamiltonian and skew-symmetric matrices

In this paper we consider numerical methods for computing functions of matrices being Hamiltonian and skew-symmetric. Analytic functions of this kind of matrices (i.e., exponential and rational functions) appear in the numerical solutions of orthosymplectic matrix differential systems when geometric integrators are involved. The main idea underlying the presented techniques is to exploit the special block structure of a Hamiltonian and skew-symmetric matrix to gain a cheaper computation of the functions. First, we will consider an approach based on the numerical solution of structured linear systems and then another one based on the Schur decomposition of the matrix. Splitting techniques are also considered in order to reduce the computational cost. Several numerical tests and comparison examples are shown. © 2008 IMACS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.