Re: nested * and ** (rules for commutative quantities)
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg7749] Re: [mg7658] nested * and ** (rules for commutative quantities)
- From: "C. Woll" <carlw at u.washington.edu>
- Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 04:41:21 -0400
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
On Thu, 26 Jun 1997, Marlies Brinksma wrote: > ... > > I have a set of operators (let's call them Op[index_,arg2_]). > Two of these operators commute when their indices are different and they are > noncommutative otherwise. All operators commute with any scalar quantity. > > I would like to define some rules such that expressions like: > > Op[3,a] ** Op[2,v] ** 4 ** Op[6,s] ** Op[2,x] ** Op[1,t] > > will be automatically changed to: > > Times[4, Op[1,t],NonCommutativeMultiply[Op[2,v],Op[2,x]],Op[3,a],Op[6,s]] > > ... Hi Marlies, I'm not sure of all the rules that you want to impose, since you don't explain why Op[1,t] is not within NonCommutativeMultiply. Also, you don't mention what kinds of objects other than numbers might occur in addition to your Op functions. At any rate, here is a short definition which might do what you want. Unprotect[NonCommutativeMultiply]; Clear[NonCommutativeMultiply]; Op[n_,a_]**Op[m_,b_]:=Op[m,b]**Op[n,a] /; n>m Op[n_,a_]**b_?NumberQ:=b Op[n,a] a_**(b_?NumberQ c_):=b (a**c) (b_?NumberQ c_)**d_:=b (c**d) Protect[NonCommutativeMultiply]; With this definition, Op[3,a] ** Op[2,v] ** 4 ** Op[6,s] ** Op[2,x] ** Op[1,t] produces 4 Op[1,t]**Op[2,v]**Op[2,x]**Op[3,a]**Op[6,s] Instead of NumberQ, you can use a more complex condition if you have other objects besides numbers and Op functions. For example, if Op[1,_] objects commute with each other, then you could add the definitions Op[1,b_]**Op[n_,a]:=Op[1,b] Op[n,a] a_**(Op[1,b_] c_):=Op[1,b] (a**c) (Op[1,b_] c_)**d_:=Op[1,b] (c**d) Is this what you're looking for? Carl Woll