Polynomial mechanics and optimal control

We describe a new algorithm for trajectory optimization of mechanical systems. Our method combines pseudo-spectral methods for function approximation with variational discretization schemes that exactly preserve conserved mechanical quantities such as momentum. We thus obtain a global discretization of the Lagrange-d'Alembert variational principle using pseudo-spectral methods. Our proposed scheme inherits the numerical convergence characteristics of spectral methods, yet preserves momentum-conservation and symplecticity after discretization. We compare this algorithm against two other established methods for two examples of underactuated mechanical systems; minimum-effort swing-up of a two-link and a three-link acrobot.Comment: Final version to EC

Block Circulant and Toeplitz Structures in the Linearized Hartree–Fock Equation on Finite Lattices: Tensor Approach

This paper introduces and analyses the new grid-based tensor approach to approximate solution of the elliptic eigenvalue problem for the 3D lattice-structured systems. We consider the linearized Hartree-Fock equation over a spatial $L_1\times L_2\times L_3$ lattice for both periodic and non-periodic problem setting, discretized in the localized Gaussian-type orbitals basis. In the periodic case, the Galerkin system matrix obeys a three-level block-circulant structure that allows the FFT-based diagonalization, while for the finite extended systems in a box (Dirichlet boundary conditions) we arrive at the perturbed block-Toeplitz representation providing fast matrix-vector multiplication and low storage size. The proposed grid-based tensor techniques manifest the twofold benefits: (a) the entries of the Fock matrix are computed by 1D operations using low-rank tensors represented on a 3D grid, (b) in the periodic case the low-rank tensor structure in the diagonal blocks of the Fock matrix in the Fourier space reduces the conventional 3D FFT to the product of 1D FFTs. Lattice type systems in a box with Dirichlet boundary conditions are treated numerically by our previous tensor solver for single molecules, which makes possible calculations on rather large $L_1\times L_2\times L_3$ lattices due to reduced numerical cost for 3D problems. The numerical simulations for both box-type and periodic $L\times 1\times 1$ lattice chain in a 3D rectangular "tube" with $L$ up to several hundred confirm the theoretical complexity bounds for the block-structured eigenvalue solvers in the limit of large $L$.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1408.383

The condition number of join decompositions

The join set of a finite collection of smooth embedded submanifolds of a mutual vector space is defined as their Minkowski sum. Join decompositions generalize some ubiquitous decompositions in multilinear algebra, namely tensor rank, Waring, partially symmetric rank and block term decompositions. This paper examines the numerical sensitivity of join decompositions to perturbations; specifically, we consider the condition number for general join decompositions. It is characterized as a distance to a set of ill-posed points in a supplementary product of Grassmannians. We prove that this condition number can be computed efficiently as the smallest singular value of an auxiliary matrix. For some special join sets, we characterized the behavior of sequences in the join set converging to the latter's boundary points. Finally, we specialize our discussion to the tensor rank and Waring decompositions and provide several numerical experiments confirming the key results