A new projection method for finding the closest point in the intersection of convex sets

In this paper we present a new iterative projection method for finding the closest point in the intersection of convex sets to any arbitrary point in a Hilbert space. This method, termed AAMR for averaged alternating modified reflections, can be viewed as an adequate modification of the Douglas--Rachford method that yields a solution to the best approximation problem. Under a constraint qualification at the point of interest, we show strong convergence of the method. In fact, the so-called strong CHIP fully characterizes the convergence of the AAMR method for every point in the space. We report some promising numerical experiments where we compare the performance of AAMR against other projection methods for finding the closest point in the intersection of pairs of finite dimensional subspaces

Exact Convergence Rates of Alternating Projections for Nontransversal Intersections

We consider the convergence rate of the alternating projection method for the nontransversal intersection of a semialgebraic set and a linear subspace. For such an intersection, the convergence rate is known as sublinear in the worst case. We study the exact convergence rate for a given semialgebraic set and an initial point, and investigate when the convergence rate is linear or sublinear. As a consequence, we show that the exact rates are expressed by multiplicities of the defining polynomials of the semialgebraic set, or related power series in the case that the linear subspace is a line, and we also decide the convergence rate for given data by using elimination theory. Our methods are also applied to give upper bounds for the case that the linear subspace has the dimension more than one. The upper bounds are shown to be tight by obtaining exact convergence rates for a specific semialgebraic set, which depend on the initial points.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figur