IMA Journal of Mathematical Control & Information (1996) 13, 279-298

Clifford algebras, dynamical systems, and periodic orbits

D. McCAFFREY, S. P. BANKs, AND A. MosER
Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield,
Mappin Street, Sheffield SJ 3JD

[Received I March 1995 and in revised form 5 July 1995]

Certain differential systems can be lifted to algebras (of matrices), which greatly

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simplifies the use of global linearization for nonlinear dynamical systems. Here we
shall use Clifford algebras to obtain an interesting collection which exhibit a wide
variety of behaviour. In particular we shall use global linearizat1on to show that
Lyapunov stability theory for linear systems can be directly extended to this situation
and that periodic orbits can be explicitly calculated.

1. Introduction
The Carleman linearization technique has been developed in a number of papers [1, 2,
3]. For a nonlinear one-dimensional equation of the form
.X =f(x), x(O) = xo, x(t) E ~' (1.1)
the method is very simple. We define the new variables
c/J;=Xi.

Then

¢; = ixi-l_x = ixi-Jf(x) = La;1 x1

00

}=0
for some values ail depending on the derivatives off. Then we can write the equation
as an infinite-dimensional linear one:
cP = A<P (1.2)
where <P = (¢o,¢J, .. y and A= (a;1)0 ,;;; i,J<oo· The solution is
<P(t) = eA 1<P0 (0 ~ t ~ T),
where 4> 0 = (l,x0 ,x5,x6, .. y,
provided the Taylor series of the solution of the
original system (1.1) converges in [0, T].
The main drawback with the method is that, for vector systems, we must consider
Taylor monomials of the form

and proceed as before. However, we then obtain a tensorial equation of the form
cP = A<P,
279
©Oxford University Press 1996
280 D. McCAFFREY, S. P. BANKS AND A. MOSER

where 1> = (¢;1 ... ;J(i1 ;;;. o) is a rank-n tensor and A is a tensor operator. This approach
has been used in Ref. 4. One can, of course, string 1> out into a long vector as in Ref. 6,
but this destroys the essential structure of A.
In this paper we shall consider systems which can be 'lifted' to associative algebras,
so that we have
x =f(x), x(O) = x0 , xEA, (1.3)
where x 0 E A for some associative algebra A. Assuming that/ has a convergent Tay-
lor series in this algebra, then we can use the expansion functions xi which are well
defined in the algebra. This will lead to a matrix linearization of (1.3), since these
functions can be treated a essentially 'scalar' objects.
The most useful algebras for our purposes are the standard matrix algebras and the

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Clifford algebras, generalizing the complex numbers and quaternions. In the next
section we shall give a brief introduction to the Clifford algebras, in Section 3 we
consider the lifting of dynamical systems to Clifford algebras, and in Section 4 their
application to linearization will be discussed. In Section 5 the existence of periodic
orbits for Clifford systems will be studied, and finally in Section 6 we shall show
that Hamiltonian systems can be lifted to Clifford algebras.

2. Clifford algebras
In this section we shall give a brief introduction to Clifford algebras and their
properties which are needed for global linearization of systems. For more details
see Ref. 7. A quadratic space (V, Q) is a vector space over a field F( = JR., C, or lHI)
together with a nondegenerate quadratic form Q, i.e. a mapping Q : V--+ :F, such
that
(i) Q(-\v) = ,\2 Q(v) (,\ E F, v E V),
and such that the map B(. , .), defined by
(ii) B(v, w)~ HQ(v) + Q(w)- Q(v- w)] (v, wE V),
is bilinear. The associated form B(v, w) can be used to define an inner product on V.
Also, if {e1 } is a basis for V, then

Q(v) = LB(e1 ,ek)v1vkl

j,k

where v = ~J v1e1 with v1 E F. We can always choose the basis to be B-orthogonal, so

that, in this case,
Q(v) = L Q(e1)vJ.
j

ExAMPLE 2.1 The quadratic form

Qp,q(x) = -(xT + ... + x~) + (x~+I + ... + x~+q),
for x E JR.P+q, gives rise to a real quadratic Minkowski space denoted by (JR.P,q, Qp,q)·
 CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS, DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS, AND PERIODIC ORBITS 281

Note that (lRn,o, Qn,o) is just JR.n with the quadratic form -llxll 2 while (JR 0·n, Qo.n) is JR.n
with the quadratic form llxll 2 (i.e. usual Euclidean space). 0
ExAMPLE 2.2 (C, Qn) is a complex quadratic space with
Qn(z) = ZT + ... + z~.
The associated bilinear form is Bn(z, w) = 2:7=I ziwi (rather than the usual form
2::7= 1 Z;W;). 0

Let (V, Q) be a (finite-dimensional) quadratic space. A Clifford algebra (A, v) for

(V, Q) is an associative algebra A over F with identity 1 together with an F-linear
embedding v: V---->A of V into A such that (v(v)) 2 = -Q(v)1 (v E V), and A is

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generated by {v( v) : v E V} and {.A1 : .A E F}. Identifying Vas a subset of A, we sim-
ply write the Clifford condition as
v2 = -Q(v)l.
Given a quadratic space (V, Q) we can generate a Clifford algebra A as
A= T(V)/I,
where T(V) = l:k'=o &l
Vis the tensor algebra over V and I is the two-sided ideal
generated by the set {v 0 v + Q( v)1 : v E V}. The embedding v : V ---->A is just the
projection 1r: T(V) ---->T(V)/I =A restricted to V.
For any nondegenerate quadratic space (V, Q) we can find an orthonormal basis
{ei: 1 ~ i ~ n} for which Q(ei) = ±1. Expanding (u + v) 2 for any u, v E V, we see
that
B(u, v) = -!
(uv + vu) (u, v E V),
so that
e1ek + ekei = -2Q(e1)8i (1 ~j,k ~ n). (2.1)
Define
ea = eal ... eD'k' e0 = 1,
for each subset a of { 1 ,... , n} such that 1 ~ a 1 < ... < ak
~ n. From (2.1) we see that
a Clifford algebra for Vis generated by all the ea (a E 2{1. · n}) and so has dimen-
sion ~ 2n. If the algebra has dimension 2n, it is called a universal Clifford algebra.
EXAMPLE 2.3 We shall characterize the real Clifford algebra ov~r JRM for p + q ~ 2.
This is denoted by Ap,q. First let

1 = ao = [~ ~]. a1 = [~ ~1 ], az = [ 0i -i]
0 ,

denote the usual Pauli matrices, and define

Eo= ao = [~ ~]. E1 = [~ ~i]. E2 = [ ~1 ~]. i]

E3 = [ 0i 0 .

Then
aT=1 (O~i~3), E~ = 1, Er = -1, ( 1 ~ i ~ 3)
282 D. McCAFFREY, S. P. BANKS AND A. MOSER

Since JR 0•0 has dimension 0, its universal Clifford algebra has dimension 2° = 1, and so
Ao,o = {..\1 :.A E JR} = JR,
together with the embedding v: JR0•0 __, Ao,o given by v(O) = 0. Since a~ = 1, the
embedding v: JR 1•0 __,A1,o given by v(y) = ycr3 gives rise to the realization

A~,o={[; :J:x,yElR}=lREBlR

with basis e0 = 1 = cr0 and e1 = cr3 • Similarly, A 0,1 has the realization

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with basis e0 = 1 = cr0 and e1 = E 2 •
For A 2,0 note that
2
x2 ] = [xf+x~ 0 ]
-XI 0 x 21 +x22
= (xi + x~)cro
= -Q2,o(xl, x2)1

Similarly,

A 0 ,2 = { [ xo + ix1
. Xz + ix3]
. : x 0 , ... , x 3 E lR } = lHI.
-X2 + lXJ Xo- 1X 1

D
Higher-order Clifford algebras can be generated from the above special cases, since it
is easy to see that, if A(V, Q) denotes the universal Clifford algebra for (V, Q), then

M(2,A(V,Q)) = {[: ~] :a,b,c,dEA(V,Q)}

is a universal Clifford algebra of dimension 4 x dim (A(V, Q)). For example, consider
the quadratic space

(V EB JRo,z, -Q(v) + xz + l).

It is realized ~y ma~rices [ ~ ~ J (a, b, c, dE A(V, Q)) under the embedding
v:(v,x,y)t---t[. IX Iytv]. Similarly, (VEBJR 1·0, -Q(v)-x2 ) is realized by a
1Y- V -IX
 CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS, DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS, AND PERIODIC ORBITS 283

subalgebra of (V EB JR.2 •0 , -Q( v) - x 2 - i) under the embedding

v:(v,x)f---+ [ 0 V+X] ,
-v+x 0
while (V EB JR.0 •1 , Q(v) + x2 ) is realized by a subalgebra of (V EB JR. 1•1 , f---+Q(v) + x2 - i)
under the embedding

0
v: (v,x)f---+ [ v-x V +X]
0
.

In fact, it can be shown that, if A(V, Q) is the universal Clifford algebra for a non-
degenerate real quadratic space (V, Q), then it is isomorphic to a real subalgebra of one
of the matrix algebras C 2m x 2m or C 2m x 2m EB C 2m x 2m if dim V is even or odd, respectively.

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Three important operators are defined on a Clifford algebra. These are the principal
automorphism ( '), given by
e~= (-l)lale 0 (a E 2{l, .. ,n}),
the reversion (*), given by
e: = (ea,ea2 000 eak)* = eak 000 eQ2ea,'
and the conjugation operation C), given by

All these operators are extended by linearity to the whole of the algebra. Using these
operators we can define the norm function
L1: A---+A
by
L1(x) =XX.
Care should be taken, however, with this definition, since it does not generally resemble
the usual idea of norm in a vector space: it is more like the determinant of a matrix,
and indeed replaces the det function in the general theory of spin groups. This can be
seen clearly in the cases Ao, 1 and A 1,0 • In the former case we have the expansion of any
element z = xe0 + ye 2 E Ao, 1 in terms of the basis e0, e2. Then
L1(z) = (xeo- ye2)(xeo + ye2) = (x 2 + i)t,
and this is indeed isomorphic to the standard Euclidean norm. In the latter case,
however, we have z = xa0 + ya3 for any element in A 1,0, and then

L1(z) = (xao- ya3)(xao + ya3) = (x 2 - i)t.

In fact, we have
(2.2)
always in the Euclidean case, i.e. Ao,n for any n, where \\x\\ is the Euclidean norm, 2

considering x in terms of a basis e0 (a E 2{ 1 ,.. , n}) of Ao,n; thus, if

X= L
aE2{1, .. , •l
eaXa, (2.3)
284 D. McCAFFREY, S. P. BANKS AND A. MOSER

then
2
X a. (2.4)
aE2{1, .. ,n}

Moreover, this norm is independent of the basis. We shall use the norm given by
(2.3)-(2.4) even in the non-Euclidean case, but it should be noted that (2.2) no longer
holds, and the norm is not independent of the basis {e"}, although all such norms are
equivalent.

3. Lifting nonlinear dynamical systems to Clifford algebras

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Consider a nonlinear differential equation of the form
:X+ f(x), x(O) = x0 E JR.n. (3.1)
If Ap,q is a universal Clifford algebra, with p + q ~ n, we say that the equation (3.1)
can be lifted to Ap,q if there is a linear embedding L: JR.n ----.Ap,q• such that
Lx = L(x, ,... , Xn) = x,eUJ + ... + Xnean
for some basis elements ea, in Ap,q• and a function
F: Ap,q-----. Ap,q
such that

where

2.: ~ie/31 + 2.: X;ea,

n
X=
}E:J i=i

and {e 13 )JE:l U {ea,h,;;,;n is a complete basis of Ap,q such that {e 13 )JE:l and
{ea,h,;;,;n are disjoint. We then consider the 'extended' differential equation

X= F(X), X(O) = Lx0 E Ap,q· (3.2)

LEMMA 3.1 If the equation (3.2) is a lifting of equation (3.1) to Ap,q then any solution
X(t) of (3.2) with ~i = 0, for j E ..J, gives rise to a solution x(t) of (3.1):

X;(t) = (X, eaJ

Proof We have
d d
(X, ea ) = -d (X, ea ) = -d X;
0

' t ' t
and

and the result follows. D

 CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS, DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS, AND PERIODIC ORBITS 285

EXAMPLE 3.2 The system of equations

' 2 2
x 1 = x 1 +x2,

lifts to A 1,0 , since it can be written

[~I ~2
x2 XI
l [ x 21 +x22 2x 1x 2 ]

x,r
2x 1x 2 xi +x~

[XI
x2 XI

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I.e.

in A 1,o. The system

can be lifted to Ao." since

2
x2]
XI
EXAMPLE 3.3 The system
x' 1 = x 31 - 32
x x 32
x x 32
x4 x
2 1 - 3 1 - 1,

X2 = 3XTX2- X~- ~X2- ~XI,

x' 3 = x 1x 3
32 - x 33 - x 22x 3 - x 42x 3,
x. 4 = 32
x1x4 -
3
x4- x 22x4- x 23x 4, (3.3)
can be lifted to the system

on Ao,2> where
x3 + ~x4].
X1- IX2

Now let

X= F(X), X(O) = X 0 E Ap,q• (3.4)

be a differential equation defined on a universal Clifford algebra Ap,q• and suppose
that F has a convergent Taylor series (in the Hilbert-space norm introduced in
286 D. McCAFFREY, S. P. BANKS AND A. MOSER

Section 2). Thus,

F(X) = L
00

ix;,
i=O l.
(3.5)

where a; E F (i ~ 0). The solution of (3.4) is given directly by the Lie series

X(t) = [exp(tF(X) d~)xL=Xo. (3.6)

EXAMPLE 3.4 Consider the system

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on Ao, 2 given in example 3.3, with

Xo = [~ ~l
The solution is given by (3.6), i.e.

X(t) = [exp(tx
3
d~)x]X=Xo

=L ;
00 i
(2i- 1)!!Xii+l
i=O l.

where n!! is the double factorial given by

n!! = n(n- 2)(n- 4) ... , 1!! = 1, 0!! = 1, n!!=1, (n<O).
Thus, if

we have

x1 + ix2 x3o + ~x40] 2i+ I

[ -x + ix4 XJO- 1x20
3

which gives the solution to (3.3) in the form

XJ ( t) = xw + t(xfo - 3x~0 x 10 - 3x~oxw - 3x~0 x 10 + ... ) + ... ,
x2(t) = + t( -x~o + 3xiox2o- x~oX2o- x~x2o + ... ) + .... ,
X2o
(3.7)
x3(t) = X3o + t(-x~o + 3xiox3o- x~oX3o- x~x3o + ... ) + ... ,
x4(t) = X4o + t( -x,k + 3xiox4o- x~oX4o- x~oX4o + ... ) + ... .
 CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS, DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS, AND PERIODIC ORBITS 287

4. Global linearization of Clifford differential systems

Consider now a Clifford differential equation of the form
X=F(X), X(O) = X0 E Ap,q• (4.1)
where

Define the Taylor monomials by

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Then

00 00 00

= '""'. ak xk+i-1
~~ k' = '""'. ak "'
~~ k' 'f'k+i-1 = '""' "'
~CX.jf'f'f
k=O . k=O . f=O
where
. ae-i+1
if£+ 1 ~ i,
a;e= { ~(£-i+1)!
otherwise.
Hence, writing ci> = (¢0 , ¢1 , ¢2 , •. y, we have
<i> = Aci>, (4.2)
where A= (a;j) 0 ~ i,J<oo· Note that ci> E A~q~ EBk'=oAp,q• and the latter can be made
into a Banach space by defining

llci>II 00 = ~ ll¢d1Ap.q. (4.3)

Ap,q ~ z'l
i=O .

Then (as has been shown in Ref 3) eAr exists as a bounded operator for t E [0, r) on
(A~J, II·IIA;), and the solution of (4.2) is given by
ci>(t) = eA
1
ci>(O),
where

r is the maximal time of existence of the solution, and A~J is the subset of A~q
consisting of all elements of the form ( 1, X' X 2 ' X 3 , ... ) T.

REMARK 4.1 If F(O) = 0, i.e. a 0 = 0, we can consider the vector ci> = (¢ 1 , ¢ 2 , ... )T,
i.e. we only need to take into account Taylor monomials for i > 0. 0
288 D. McCAFFREY, S. P. BANKS AND A. MOSER

ExAMPLE 4.2 Consider the system in Example 3.3, i.e.

X=X 3 •
Then
¢; =xi (i > o),
and so
i-1
¢; = L:xkxxi-k-1
k=O

= iXi+2

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= i¢i+2·
Hence the system is equivalent to the system
1> = AcP,
where

A= [~ ~
0 0 0 0
0 2
3
.....'1
This is easily checked to lead to the same solution as in (3.7). 0

The linearized structure (4.2) is particularly useful in generalizing a variety of linear

results to nonlinear systems which lift to Clifford algebras. First note that, since
the Clifford norm II·IIAp.q induces a norm on ffi.P+q equivalent to the Euclidean
norm, the stability of a Clifford system (4.1) is equivalent to that of the underlying
system in ffi.P+q. The next result is proved in formally the same way as Lyapunov's
classical theorem.

THEOREM 4.1 If F(O) = 0, the system (4.1) is stable if and only if, given any positive
definite (infinite) matrix Q, there exists a positive definite matrix P such that
ATP+PA=-Q.
where by positive definite we mean that
cpT PeP> 0
for all cP E Ap,q of the form cP =(X, X 2 ,X,
oo· 3
... )T . 0
- - -2 -3 T - .
(Here, cP = (X, X , X , ... ) , where X denotes the conjugate of X.) A Lyapunov
function is then given directly by
 CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS, DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS, AND PERIODIC ORBITS 289

EXAMPLE 4.2 Consider the system

X= -X3
on ~. 2 , where
[ x 1 + ix 2 x3 + ~x4l
X=
- x 3 + ix4 XJ -1X2

Let

l l
0 0 0

P~ r~ 0 0
Q~ r: 0 0

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0 0

Then,

l
0 1

A~-[: 0
0
0
0
2
0 3

and so

Also,
V = <PT PC/J =XX= L1(X) = llxll 2 1
and

D
Remark 'Positive definite' now means something rather different than in the usual
sense.

5. Periodic orbits
The proof of the existence of periodic orbits of nonlinear dynamical systems has a
long history, including justifications of the harmonic linearization techniques [8],
Lyapunov theory [5], and the use of index theory [9]. The method developed here
will allow us to prove directly the existence of periodic orbits for systems which
can be lifted to a Clifford algebra. Thus, consider again the system (4.1) on Ap,q
and its linearization (4.2) on A;.'q· Suppose that X(O) lies on a periodic orbit of period
T. Then

eAr C/J(O) = C/J(O), ( 5.1)

where C/J(O) = (X(O), X 2 (0), X 3 (0), .. y. Hence, eAr has an eigenvalue 1 with
290 D. McCAFFREY, S. P. BANKS AND A. MOSER

eigenvector 4>(0). Thus, although A is not a bounded operator on A~J, an obvious

extension of the spectral mapping theorem implies that A has an eigenvalue 2m/T
(although note that A will not generally have an eigenvector of the form 4>(0)). Hence
we have the following result.

THEOREM 5.1 A necessary condition for (4.1) to have a periodic orbit of period T is
that the associated operator A E .C(A~q) has an eigenvalue of 2mjT. 0

A sufficient condition is that A satisfies the 'necessary' condition of Theorem 5.1 and
that eAT has an eigenvector corresponding to the eigenvalue 2m/T of the form <P(O)
above. Moreover, each element of the vector eAt<P(O) is a formal power series which

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must converge for all t E [0, T]. In many cases we can evaluate eAt directly and deter-
mine conditions for the existence of periodic orbits.

ExAMPLE 5.2 Consider the system

X= iX +X3 (5.2)
for X in a complex Clifford algebra A. The linearization (4.2) is given by the operator
0 1
2i 0 2
3i 0 3
4i 0 4

Clearly A (as an operator on A00 ) has i as an eigenvalue. To determine eAt, consider

the systems of equations
x1 = ix 1 +x3 ,
x2 = 2ix2 + 2x4,
(5.3)

Put Yk = e-iktxk. Then we have

Yk = -ike-iktxk + e-ikt_xk
= k e2itYk+l (1~k<oo).

We must solve these equations with initial condition (0,0, ... , 1,0, ... ) (1 in the
(2p + 1)th position). Thus
Y2p+l =0 ===} Y2p+l = 1,
j; 2p-l = (2p- l)e2it · 1
 CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS, DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS, AND PERIODIC ORBITS 291

so

Y2p- 1 = 1 (e2it - 1) .
(2p - 1) 2i

Next,
Y2p-3 = (2p- 3)e
21
i Y2p-l

= (2p- 3)(2p- 1) ~i e2it(e2it- 1)

and so

(2p - 3) ( 2p - 1) 1i 1i (e2it - 1)2 .

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y 2P _ 3 =
24
Continuing in this way we obtain

= (2 - 1) II _!_ _!_ , . _1_ ( 2it - 1) P = ( 2p - 1) !! ( 2it - 1) P

Yl p , 2'1 4'1 p. 2'1 e (2')P
1 p.I e .

Thus,

It follows that the solution of (5.2) through X 0 is given by

This power series has radius of convergence

. ((2p-l)!!)l/p
r = 1/11m sup
. p 1 p.

Hence, if
ll(e2it-
2
l)X?I ~!
0 "' 2'

then the solution is given by the above power series. Since A has i as an eigenvalue, all
solutions with
2 1 I
IXol ::::;
SUPo ,;; 21r le
2it
- 1
=2
1 ,;; J

lie on periodic orbits of period 21r. In particular, if A = Ao.1 ~ C, then the equation
292 D. McCAFFREY, S. P. BANKS AND A. MOSER

-1.6 -1.2 --D.8 --{).4 0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2.0

1.6

1.2

0.8

--{).4

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--{).8

-1.2
-1.6
-2.0 L__ _.::::::::~====::::::::::=.._L~_!__ _ _ __::::::::=-=====:::::::__ _j

Fig. 1. Phase-plane portrait of .X = ix + x 3 .

becomes

Le.

The phase plane portrait of this system is shown in Fig. 1.

6. Classical Hamiltonian systems and Clifford algebras

In this last section we shall show that a large class of nontrivial systems can be lifted to
Clifford algebras~viz. the Hamiltonian ones. However, the previous technique of
global linearization will not be applicable here since the resulting vector field will
only be analytic in trivial cases. Thus, consider the standard Hamiltonian system
.
qi =~,
aH .
Pi=-~,
aH (6.1 )
upi uqi
for 1 ~ i ~ n, defined on 2n-dimensional phase space JR 2n. It is well known that, for
n = 1, the equation can be written in complex form on C ~ JR 2 • Thus if
z = P1 + iq,
then

[ ~I]Pi
[-1 01] [~:]
0
aH
ap,
 CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS, DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS, AND PERIODIC ORBITS 293

and
. . .. 8H .8H
z=q 1 +rp 1 = - - I -
8p1 oq,
= _ 2i(~ 8H _ !._ 8H) (6.2)
2 aq, 2i ap,
-2i 8H
=
oz.
Similarly, for n = 2, we can 'lift' the equation (6.1) to the quaternions IHI in a similar
manner. Thus, define

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i.e.

where ij = k. Then,
. . 8H
ZJ = - 21 -
0ZJ '

whence
. . 8H .. 8H
w=- 2r - + 2J I -
8z1 8z 2
= -2i (Bz 1 + j8z2 )H(w),
where

Hence
w= -2iDH(w) (6.3)
where

Next we seek to lift (6.1) for a general n to A 2m the universal Clifford algebra over
(~ 2n, 11·11 2 ). We need the following characterization of An+ 2 in terms of An-

LEMMA 6.1 An+ 2 can be realized as M(2, An) (the 2 x 2 matrix algebra with ele-
ments in An·

Proof Let e 1 , ... , e" be an orthonormal basis of ~n and define the elements
1'i E M(2, An) (i ~ j ~ n + 2) by

i 0]
l'n+i = [0 -i '
294 D. McCAFFREY, S. P. BANKS AND A. MOSER

Then

'Y] = [ eo] 2
eJ
0]=[-10 -1OJ (1 ~ j ~ n), 2
'Yn+1 =
[ -1
O

'Y~+2 = [ ~1 ~1].
Moreover, the Clifford condition
'Y}'Yk + 'Yk'Yj = -2c5f
also holds. A simple dimension argument finishes the proof. D
Returning to the problem oflifting a general Hamiltonian system of the form (6.1) to

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the Clifford algebra A 2m in order to see the ideas more clearly we shall first recast the
two special cases n = 1 and n = 2 considered above. It turns out that, rather than
being defined on C and JHI, as we have shown above, they are more naturally
defined on A 2 ~ lHl and ~ ~ JHI 2 x 2 •

EXAMPLE 6.2 Consider therefore the system

Define z = qe 1 + pe2 , where

i 0 ]
e1 = [0 -i '

Note that v: JR:.2 ---+ A 2 is given by v(x 1, x 2 ) = (x 1e1 + x 2 e2 ) 2 = -(xi+ x~)I, so that
e 1 and e2 generate the algebra A 2 . Now,

z = q[ 0i 0] + p[-10 01]
-i

an [ i o J an [ o
= ap o -i - aq -1 ~]
o -i J [ o 1 J an [o o. Jan
= [ -i o -1 o ap + -i -l
- = -J2 DH,
aq

i]
where
0
12 = [ i 0
and
D= [oi -io Jaqa + [-1o
Note that

[0i 0i] [10 OJ1 '

2
2
12 = =-

so that 12 acts as an imaginary unit. D

 CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS, DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS, AND PERIODIC ORBITS 295

In order to lift the system from An_ 2 to An we introduce the following definition
DEFINITION 6.3 Let n be even; say n = 2k, where k ~ 2. Define
2
z<n- ) = q1e1 + P1e2 + q2e3 + P2e4 + · · · + qk_Jen-3 + Pk-len-2•
and suppose that
.z(n-2) = -Jn-2DH
D
a
= e1-+e2-+ ··· +en-3--+en-2--
a a a
aql aP1 aqk-1 aPk-1
Is a Hamiltonian system on An_ 2. We define the double of this system on An to be the

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system
. (n-2) - -J D-H
W - n '

where

w<n-
2) = qn1 +P!''/2 + ··· +qk-i'Yn-3 +Pk-i'Yn-2•
- a a a a
D = '1'1-a +'1'2-a + · · · +'Yn-3-a--+'l'n-2-a--,
'Pk-1
q1 'Pi . qk-1

')';= [O
e;
e;l0 (i=l, ... ,n-2),

and

Jn-2 0 ]
Jn = [ .
0 Jn-2
0
Remark 6.4 Clearly, the double of a system on An_ 2 is of the form
2
0 .z(n- )] _ [ 0 -Jn-2DH]
[ .z(n-2) 0 - -Jn-2DH 0 .
0

EXAMPLE 6.5 We now lift the system in example 6.2 to A 4 . First, the double is the
system
296 D. McCAFFREY, S. P. BANKS AND A. MOSER

or

. . J (EJH EJH )
q111 + P112 = - 4 aq 11 + ap 12
1 1
To extend the system to~ consider the system
0 0
0 0
0 0
42 +h
-i 0 -1 0
0 0
0 -i 0 -1

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0 0 0
0 0 0
0 EJH 0 aH 0
aq2
+-
ap2
(6.5)
0 -1 0 -1 0
0 0 0
0 0 -1 0 -1
or
.
q2r3
.
+ P2!4 = - J 4 K 4 (aH aH )
oq r3 + ap r4
2 2
where

x.~[~ 0 ~o~]
0

It is easy to check that this is equivalent to the Hamiltonian system

. EJH
P2 = --. ·
8q2
Moreover, the matrices /~o 1 2, 1 3 , 1 4 generate A 4 , by Lemma 6.1. Since the systems
(6.4) and (6.5) are independent, we can combine them into a single equation
w= -J4DH(w)
where

and
a a a a
D=11-a +12-a +K4r3-a +K4r4-a .
ql 'PI q2 'P2
The general technique is now clear and we state it as follows.

THEOREM 6.6 Suppose that the (n- 2)-dimensional Hamiltonian system can be
written in the form
 CLIFFORD ALGEBRAS, DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS, AND PERIODIC ORBITS 297

on An_ 2 ; then then-dimensional Hamiltonian system can be written in the form

w(n) = -J2"DnH(wn),
where

wn -- [ 0
wn-2
wn
0
-2] +[~ ~Jqn +[~~ ~ ]Pn,
and

Dn [ 0
Dn-2
Dn-2] +K2n [i
0 0 ~J +K2·[~ ~],

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where i and 1 are the obvious (n- 2) x (n- 2) matrices, and

0
0
0

7. Conclusions
In this paper we have studied nonlinear dynamical systems which can be lifted to
Clifford algebras. Such systems have a considerable degree of symmetry and exhibit
interesting behaviour. In particular, we have shown that Lyapunov's equation for
linear system stability directly generalizes to Clifford systems and that periodic orbits
may often be computed explicitly for these types of system. We have presented only
some very simple examples to illustrate the theory. Clearly, many other kinds of
systems are expressible in this form, and a thorough study of some higher-
dimensional examples should provide some very interesting behaviour. For
example, are any of these systems chaotic? If so, the global linearization technique
will provide a method for obtaining explicit characterization of their properties, as
in the case of periodic orbits. These questions will be examined in a future paper.

Acknowledgement
This work was partially supported by the EPSRC under grant numbers GR/H 73066
and GR/J 75241.

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