Series
Transfer function — the series
2 essays on one idea, from the one that introduces it to the one that assumes the rest.
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A model that is a rational function
A state matrix has a hundred thousand rows and the thing anyone wants from it is a function of one complex variable. The number that says how much of that size was ever the complexity is a rank — and the rank a derivation writes down cannot be computed, while one built from samples alone can.
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The definition asks for more of what defeats it
The rank of a p × p Hankel matrix of Markov parameters resolves a degree of p, and it needs 2p parameters to do it. Those parameters grow like the norm of the state matrix raised to their index, so the count that buys resolution is the same count that buys dynamic range. One model, four run lengths, and a spread that runs from 10¹¹ to 10¹⁰².