A numerical method for computing the Hamiltonian Schur form

We derive a new numerical method for computing the Hamiltonian Schur form of a Hamiltonian matrix that has no purely imaginary eigenvalues. We demonstrate the properties of the new method by showing its performance for the benchmark collection of continuous-time algebraic Riccati equations. Despite the fact that no complete error analysis for the method is yet available, the numerical results indicate that if no eigenvalues of are close to the imaginary axis then the method computes the exact Hamiltonian Schur form of a nearby Hamiltonian matrix and thus is numerically strongly backward stable. The new method is of complexity and hence it solves a long-standing open problem in numerical analysis. Volker Mehrmann was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Research Grant Me 790/11-3.