An Alternative Derivation of the z-Transform

Author(s): Aubrey M. Bush and Daniel C. Fielder

Source: The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 70, No. 3 (Mar., 1963), pp. 281-284
Published by: Mathematical Association of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2313125
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1963] AN ALTERNATIVE DERIVATION OF THE Z-TRANSFORM 281

Acknowledgment.
The workoftheauthorwas performed in connectionwithresearchdirected
by theAdvancedResearchProjectsAgencyof the Departmentof Defenseand was administered
bytheAirForceOffice
ofScientific
ResearchunderContractAF-49(638)-1113.
Reference
1. P. JordanandJ.vonNeumann,On InnerProductsin LinearMetricSpaces,Ann.ofMath.,
36,No. 3 (1935) 719-723.

AN ALTERNATIVE DERIVATION OF THE Z-TRANSFORM

AUBREY M. BUSH AND DANIEL C. FIELDER, GeorgiaInstituteofTechnology
Introduction.The Z-transform,originallydeveloped for use in the analysis
of sampled data and digital controlsystems,has been historicallydeveloped by
"modulating an impulse train," which is a mathematically unsatisfyingap-
proach. The presentwork extends that of H. A. Helm, of the Bell Telephone
Laboratories to include nonzero initial conditions and functionsthat are dis-
continuous at the samplinginstants. It is hoped that the derivationgiven here
will encourage the study of the Z-transformand its adoption in the analysis of
situations to which it has not yet been applied.
A general transformexpression. Using the Stieltjes integral,we may define
a transform,which we call the Laplace-Stieltjes transformand denote by
fl00
(1) Ls{f; a)} = ff(t)estda (t),

wheref(t) is a real valued functiondefinedfor all t and equal to zero fort<0,

and where s = - +jw.
This expression is a generalization of the familiar Laplace transform.It
reduces to the Laplace transformfor oa(t)= t. If a(t) is continuous and has a
continuous first derivative, a'(t), (1) reduces to the Laplace transformof
f(t)a'(t).
The Z-transform.The functiona(t) need not be a continuous function.We
will consider one discontinuous integratorin detail, for it will lead, after a
change of variable, to the Z-transformexpression.
Consider the real-valued functional(t) defined for all t to be the unique
integersatisfyingthe inequalities
(2) ai(t) < t < a1(t) + 1.
We note that a, (t) differsfromthe "greatest-integerfunction,"[t], only in that
282 ANALTERNATIVE OF THE Z-TRANSFORM
DERIVATION [March

al(t) is continuous fromthe left at each discontinuity,while [t] is continuous

fromthe rightat each discontinuity.
This integratingfunctionis a special case of the class of integratingfunctions
known as step functionintegrators.For this class of integratorsthe integralin
(1) reduces to a sum. To illustrate,considerthe integral

(3) ff(t)da(t),
rb

where a(t) is definedon [a, b] as follows:

a(a), a(c), a(b) are arbitrary,
aQ(t)- a(a) if a ? t < c,
a (t) = a(b) if c < t ? b.

It can be shown that iff(t) is any functiondefinedon [a, b] in such a way that
at least one of the functionsf and a is continuous fromthe left at t= c and at
least one is continuousfromthe rightat t= c, thenf is Stieltjes integrablewith
respect to a on [a, b] and

(4) f b

f(t)da(t) = f(c) [a (c+) -

where a(c-) and a(c+) are the leftand righthand limitsof a with respect to
t at c.
From the linearityof the Stieltjes integralwe may write forthe expression
(1), with a=oal,
100
00
(5) Jf(t)e-8tdal(t) = >f(k)e-8
.10 k=O

This follows directly from (4), for the integral may be writtenas a sum of
integralstaken over intervalscontainingonly one discontinuityof a,, and the
jump in a, at each discontinuityis a unit jump.
Now ifthe scale ofa, is changed fromt to t/T,we have the integratoraW(t/T)
which is discontinuousat t= 0, T, 27T,- and otherwiseidentical to a,i(t). We
then have the transformation
00
(6) L8{f; ael} fJf(t)ea-tddal(t/T).

Writingthis as a series,we have

00co 00
=
(7) Ls{f; al} f(t)e-=1dal(t1T)= Ef(nT)e-nT F(eaT).
n=0
1963] AN ALTERNATIVEDERIVATION OF THE Z-TRANSFORM 283

Letting esT =z we have

ff(t)z-tTdai(t/T) =E
00 00

(8) Ls{f; all} = f(nT)Z-F(z).

F(z) is theZ-transform off(t).

If theseriesin (8) convergesat all forsomez, it hasa finite radiusofcon-
vergence 8, and convergesabsolutely and uniformly forall Iz| >_
8> 8. Using
Iz = I esTI =e?T, this gives av_1/T log p1>1/T log p, where 1/T log p is the ab-
scissa of convergenceof the transform(6).
In writingthe integralsin (7) and (8) as infiniteseries,special care must be
taken when the functionf is not continuousat the discontinuitiesof a,. Note
thatf and a,1mustbe such that at least one of these functionsis continuousfrom
the leftat each discontinuityof a, and at least one is continuousfromthe right
at each discontinuityof a1.
If we do not definef(O) as f(O+), but rathermaintain that f(0) = 0, then we
must re-definethe Z-transformas

(9) F(z) = f(O+) + ff()z-tITdai(t/T).

A similar situation exists whereverf and a, are both discontinuous.

The inverse Z-transform.The inverseZ-transformmay be readily derived
from
theseriesexpression
in (8) bymultiplying byzn-1
through andintegrating
term-by-termaround any closed contour in the z-plane which encloses the
originand forwhich jz I - IzoI = 61. For most transformsa convenientcontour
is a circle about the originenclosingall poles of F(z). The developmentof the
inversionintegralcan be made in this way quite readily,with the result
1r
(10) f(nT) = - zn-lF(z)dz

where r is a contouras described above. It is to be noted that inversionof the

Z-transformonly gives the values off (t) fort= nT. This is not really surprising,
forthese are the only values off(t) used in arrivingat F(z).
For convenience,the Z-transformpair is given below.
00 00

ai} =
o
f(t)z-I;Tda (t/T) = Ef(n$T)z-,
(11) F(z) = L{f;
~~~~~~~n==o
(12) f(nT) = 2.i zn-lF(z)dz.

Tables of transformpairs forspecificfunctionsand tables of the properties

of the Z-transformcan be foundin many places in the literature[I, 2, 3, 4].
284 LARGEST SUBTOPOLOGIES WITH SPECIAL PROPERTIES [March
References
1. J. R. Raggaziniand G. E. Franklin,Sampled-DataControlSystems,McGraw-Hill,New
York, 1958.
2. J. A. Azeltine,The Transform Method in Linear SystemAnalysis,McGraw-Hill,New
York,1958.
3. J. T. Tou, Digitaland SampledData ControlSystems,McGraw-Hill,New York, 1959.
4. W. Kaplan, OperationalMethodsforLinearSystems,Addison-Wesley, Reading,Mass.,
1962.

LARGEST SUBTOPOLOGIES WITH SPECIAL PROPERTIES

NORMAN LEVINE, Ohio State University
Let (X, r) be a topological space and P any topological property.We shall
be interestedin the followingquestion: Is there a largest P-subtopology of r
(i.e., a P-subtopology forX which contains all other P-subtopologies forX)?
Remark 1. Let (X, 'r) be a topological space and {ia-a} A a familyof sub-
topologies.It is well knownthat thereexistsa smallestsubtopologyr* ofr which
contains every 7ra We term 7* the topology generatedby {m} aeA.
THEOREM 1. Let (X, r) be a topologicalspace and suppose r has a T3-sub-
(T3 means regularand T1.)
topology,Then 7 has a largestT8-subtopology.
Proof. Let {"a}aeA be the familyof all T3-subtopologiesof r. Then A5-40.
Let r* be the topology generatedby {rTa} aE:A. It sufficesto show that r* is T3.
But 7* is T1 since it contains a T1 topology. We show now that 7* is a regular
topology. Let x E U E r*. Then x E U1 ) C*n UnC U, where Ui 7aC E
i- 1, * * *, n. Since 7ai is regular, there exists for each i a ViCrm; such that
xE ViCViC Ui. Let V= V1i ... n Vn.Then
x VEV C V .1.r, n V. C V1,r * * * n ...
cU 1CUU n UnC U.
Thus (X, 7*) is regular,
Remark 2. The methods of the above proof, togetherwith the fact that
{ 0,X } is a regular-subtopology,
show that everytopologyhas a largestregular-
subtopology.
THEOREM 2. Let (X, 7) be a topologicalspace and let 7 have a Tychonoff-sub-
T has a largestTychonoff-subtopology.
topology.Thenr (Tychonoff means completely
regularand T1.)