Examples of Saturated Convergence Rates for Tikhonov Regularization

Tikhonov regularization is one of the most popular methods for solving linear operator equations of the first kind Au = f with bounded operator, which are ill-posed in general (Fredholm's integral equation of the first kind is a typical example). For problems with inexact data (both the operator and the right-hand side) the rate of convergence of regularized solutions to the generalised solution u ₊ (i.e.the minimal-norm least-squares solution) can be estimated under the condition that this solution has the source form: u ₊ im(A*A). It is well known that for Tikhonov regularization the highest-possible worst-case convergence rates increase with only for some values of , in general not greater than one. This phenomenon is called the saturation of convergence rate. In this article the analysis of this property of the method with a criterion of a priori regularization parameter choice is presented and illustrated by examples constructed for equations with compact operators.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.