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An algorithm is presented for generating successive approximations to trigonometric functions of sums of non-commuting matrices. The resulting expressions involve nested commutators of the respective matrices. The procedure is shown to converge in the convergent domain of the Zassenhaus formula and can be useful in the perturbative treatment of quantum mechanical problems, where exponentials of sums of non-commuting skew-Hermitian matrices frequently appear.

We propose and analyze a symmetric version of the Zassenhaus formula for disentangling the exponential of two non-commuting operators. A recursive procedure for generating the expansion up to any order is presented which also allows one to get an enlarged domain of convergence when it is formulated for matrices. It is shown that the approximations obtained by truncating the infinite expansion considerably improve those arising from the standard Zassenhaus formula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]