The Theory of Quaternion Matrix Derivatives

A systematic theory is introduced for calculating the derivatives of quaternion matrix function with respect to quaternion matrix variables. The proposed methodology is equipped with the matrix product rule and chain rule and it is able to handle both analytic and nonanalytic functions. This corrects a flaw in the existing methods, that is, the incorrect use of the traditional product rule. In the framework introduced, the derivatives of quaternion matrix functions can be calculated directly without the differential of this function. Key results are summarized in tables. Several examples show how the quaternion matrix derivatives can be used as an important tool for solving problems related to signal processing.