Is there a name for this "simplified" Volterra series?

77 Views Asked by At

Consider a nonlinear, time-invariant system of the following form:

$g(t) = \left[h_1(t) \ast f(t)^1\right] + \left[h_2(t) \ast f(t)^2\right] + \left[h_3(t) \ast f(t)^3\right] + ...$

where $\ast$ denotes convolution, and the $h_n(t)$'s are different impulse responses of the system for each power of the input signal.

This is clearly a sort of nonlinear system that's "in between" a Taylor series and a Volterra series:

  1. To get a Taylor series, force the system to be memoryless by requiring the $h_n(t)$'s to be scaled delta distributions.
  2. To get a Volterra series, add in additional terms where the input is being multiplied by time-shifted versions of itself.

My questions:

  1. Is there a name for this sort of series?
  2. Is there a well-known characterization of the sorts of nonlinear time-invariant systems that can be completely described by this series?
  3. Does this series turn out to be useful in practical applications?
  4. Does anyone have any general reference material on this series and where it fits into the nonlinear signal "landscape"?