Component-wise perturbation analysis and error bounds for linear least squares solutions

Perturbation bounds for the linear least squares problem min _x Ax –b₂ corresponding tocomponent-wise perturbations in the data are derived. These bounds can be computed using a method of Hager and are often much better than the bounds derived from the standard perturbation analysis. In particular this is true for problems where the rows ofA are of widely different magnitudes. Generalizing a result by Oettli and Prager, we can use the bounds to compute a posteriori error bounds for computed least squares solutions.     

Perturbation results for nearly uncoupled Markov chains with applications to iterative methods

Summary The standard perturbation theory for linear equations states that nearly uncoupled Markov chains (NUMCs) are very sensitive to small changes in the elements. Indeed, some algorithms, such as standard Gaussian elimination, will obtain poor results for such problems. A structured perturbation theory is given that shows that NUMCs usually lead to well conditioned problems. It is shown that with appropriate stopping, criteria, iterative aggregation/disaggregation algorithms will achieve these structured error bounds. A variant of Gaussian elimination due to Grassman, Taksar and Heyman was recently shown by O'Cinneide to achieve such bounds.Supported by the National Science Foundation under grant CCR-9000526 and its renewal, grant CCR-9201692. This research was done in part, during the author's visit to the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, 514 Vincent Hall, 206 Church St. S.E., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA     

Numerical enclosure for each eigenvalue in generalized eigenvalue problem

An algorithm for enclosing all eigenvalues in generalized eigenvalue problem Ax=λBx is proposed. This algorithm is applicable even if A∈C^n×n is not Hermitian and/or B∈C^n×n is not Hermitian positive definite, and supplies nerror bounds while the algorithm previously developed by the author supplies a single error bound. It is proved that the error bounds obtained by the proposed algorithm are equal or smaller than that by the previous algorithm. Computational cost for the proposed algorithm is similar to that for the previous algorithm. Numerical results show the property of the proposed algorithm.     

Error analysis of efficient evaluation algorithms for tensor product surfaces

Backward stability of the Casteljau algorithm and two more efficient algorithms for polynomial tensor product surfaces with interest in CAGD is shown. The conditioning of the corresponding bases are compared. These algorithms are also compared with the corresponding Horner algorithm and their higher accuracy is shown. A running error analysis of the algorithms is also carried out providing algorithms which calculate “a posteriori” sharp error bounds simultaneously to the evaluation of the surface without increasing significantly the computational cost.     

Running error for the evaluation of rational Bézier surfaces

Error analysis of the usual method to evaluate rational Bézier surfaces is performed. The corresponding running error analysis is also carried out and the sharpness of our running error bounds is shown. We also modify the evaluation algorithm to include such error bounds without increasing significantly its computational cost.     

Automatic,guaranteed integration of analytic functions

Davis introduced a method for estimating linear functionals of analytic functions by using Cauchy's Integral Formula. This is used to construct methods for numerical integration which give rigorous error bounds. By combining these bounds with strategies for order and subinterval adaptation, a program is developed for automatic integration of analytic functions. Interval analysis is used to validate the bounds.     

Solution of finite systems of equations by interval iteration

In actual practice, iteration methods applied to the solution of finite systems of equations yield inconclusive results as to the existence or nonexistence of solutions and the accuracy of any approximate solutions obtained. On the other hand, construction of interval extensions of ordinary iteration operators permits one to carry out interval iteration computationally, with results which can give rigorous guarantees of existence or nonexistence of solutions, and error bounds for approximate solutions. Examples are given of the solution of a nonlinear system of equations and the calculation of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a matrix by interval iteration. Several ways to obtain lower and upper bounds for eigenvalues are given.Sponsored by the United States Army under Contract No. DAAG29-80-C-0041.     

Error analysis of the Björck-Pereyra algorithms for solving Vandermonde systems

Summary A forward error analysis is presented for the Björck-Pereyra algorithms used for solving Vandermonde systems of equations. This analysis applies to the case where the points defining the Vandermonde matrix are nonnegative and are arranged in increasing order. It is shown that for a particular class of Vandermonde problems the error bound obtained depends on the dimensionn and on the machine precision only, being independent of the condition number of the coefficient matrix. By comparing appropriate condition numbers for the Vandermonde problem with the forward error bounds it is shown that the Björck-Pereyra algorithms introduce no more uncertainty into the numerical solution than is caused simply by storing the right-hand side vector on the computer. A technique for computing running a posteriori error bounds is derived. Several numerical experiments are presented, and it is observed that the ordering of the points can greatly affect the solution accuracy.     

Forward error analysis of Gaussian elimination

Summary Part I of this work deals with the forward error analysis of Gaussian elimination for general linear algebraic systems. The error analysis is based on a linearization method which determines first order approximations of the absolute errors exactly. Superposition and cancellation of error effects, structure and sparsity of the coefficient matrices are completely taken into account by this method. The most important results of the paper are new condition numbers and associated optimal component-wise error and residual estimates for the solutions of linear algebraic systems under data perturbations and perturbations by rounding erros in the arithmetic floating-point operations. The estimates do not use vector or matrix norms. The relative data and rounding condition numbers as well as the associated backward and residual stability constants are scaling-invariant. The condition numbers can be computed approximately from the input data, the intermediate results, and the solution of the linear system. Numerical examples show that by these means realistic bounds of the errors and the residuals of approximate solutions can be obtained. Using the forward error analysis, also typical results of backward error analysis are deduced. Stability theorems and a priori error estimates for special classes of linear systems are proved in Part II of this work.     

Finding all solutions of separable systems of piecewise-linear equations using integer programming

Finding all solutions of nonlinear or piecewise-linear equations is an important problem which is widely encountered in science and engineering. Various algorithms have been proposed for this problem. However, the implementation of these algorithms are generally difficult for non-experts or beginners. In this paper, an efficient method is proposed for finding all solutions of separable systems of piecewise-linear equations using integer programming. In this method, we formulate the problem of finding all solutions by a mixed integer programming problem, and solve it by a high-performance integer programming software such as GLPK, SCIP, or CPLEX. It is shown that the proposed method can be easily implemented without making complicated programs. It is also confirmed by numerical examples that the proposed method can find all solutions of medium-scale systems of piecewise-linear equations in practical computation time.