Composing and Factoring Generalized Green's Operators and Ordinary Boundary Problems

We consider solution operators of linear ordinary boundary problems with "too many" boundary conditions, which are not always solvable. These generalized Green's operators are a certain kind of generalized inverses of differential operators. We answer the question when the product of two generalized Green's operators is again a generalized Green's operator for the product of the corresponding differential operators and which boundary problem it solves. Moreover, we show that---provided a factorization of the underlying differential operator---a generalized boundary problem can be factored into lower order problems corresponding to a factorization of the respective Green's operators. We illustrate our results by examples using the Maple package IntDiffOp, where the presented algorithms are implemented.Comment: 19 page

Holonomic Gradient Descent and its Application to Fisher-Bingham Integral

We give a new algorithm to find local maximum and minimum of a holonomic function and apply it for the Fisher-Bingham integral on the sphere $S^n$, which is used in the directional statistics. The method utilizes the theory and algorithms of holonomic systems.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figur

Can Computer Algebra be Liberated from its Algebraic Yoke ?

So far, the scope of computer algebra has been needlessly restricted to exact algebraic methods. Its possible extension to approximate analytical methods is discussed. The entangled roles of functional analysis and symbolic programming, especially the functional and transformational paradigms, are put forward. In the future, algebraic algorithms could constitute the core of extended symbolic manipulation systems including primitives for symbolic approximations.Comment: 8 pages, 2-column presentation, 2 figure

Structured Linearization of Discrete Mechanical Systems for Analysis and Optimal Control

Variational integrators are well-suited for simulation of mechanical systems because they preserve mechanical quantities about a system such as momentum, or its change if external forcing is involved, and holonomic constraints. While they are not energy-preserving they do exhibit long-time stable energy behavior. However, variational integrators often simulate mechanical system dynamics by solving an implicit difference equation at each time step, one that is moreover expressed purely in terms of configurations at different time steps. This paper formulates the first- and second-order linearizations of a variational integrator in a manner that is amenable to control analysis and synthesis, creating a bridge between existing analysis and optimal control tools for discrete dynamic systems and variational integrators for mechanical systems in generalized coordinates with forcing and holonomic constraints. The forced pendulum is used to illustrate the technique. A second example solves the discrete LQR problem to find a locally stabilizing controller for a 40 DOF system with 6 constraints.Comment: 13 page