Methods and apparatus are provided for non-linear modeling of a physical system using look-up tables with polynomial interpolation. A non-linear function is evaluated for a complex input value by obtaining at least one look-up table with polynomial interpolation that represents the non-linear function, wherein entries in the look-up table comprise polynomial coefficients of at least degree two for different segments of the non-linear function; obtaining a point from the look-up table that is near a magnitude of the complex input value; and generating a complex output value by evaluating the polynomial coefficients at the point to perform a Taylor Series expansion from said point. The non-linear function characterizes, for example, a power amplifier or an inverse of a power amplifier and the look-up tables can be used, for example, to implement digital pre-distortion. The look-up table can be stored in a memory of a digital processor, and the polynomial interpolation can be performed as part of a user-defined non-linear instruction that takes a complex number as an input, x, and computes ƒ(x).