A connection between multi-linear and Volterra systems

The Volterra system is a non-linear system with the structure of the Volterra series. The Volterra series is attractive from the system-theoretic point of view, since it enables to obtain the output of a class of non-linear systems in terms of the input explicitly rather than involving input-output coupling terms and allows substantial simplifications for the numerical simulation. The Volterra system allows to derive the stability condition as well, i.e. obtain a bound on the output for a given bound on the input function, especially for the bilinear system. The bilinear system possesses the Volterra series. This paper derives the Volterra series formalism from the multi-linear system involving the coupling term attributed to (k-1)th order non-linearity and output function, where 1<k. The bilinear system becomes a special case of the non-linear problem of concern here. The Volterra series formalism of this paper is derived using the discrete counterpart of the phase space analysis for the non-linear non-autonomous system. The main result of the paper, i.e the Volterra series formalism of the multi-linear system of concern here, is somewhat more general, since the Volterra series representations for bilinear and tri-linear systems, etc. can be obtained as its special cases.