A Householder-based algorithm for Hessenberg-triangular reduction

The QZ algorithm for computing eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a matrix pencil $A - \lambda B$ requires that the matrices first be reduced to Hessenberg-triangular (HT) form. The current method of choice for HT reduction relies entirely on Givens rotations regrouped and accumulated into small dense matrices which are subsequently applied using matrix multiplication routines. A non-vanishing fraction of the total flop count must nevertheless still be performed as sequences of overlapping Givens rotations alternately applied from the left and from the right. The many data dependencies associated with this computational pattern leads to inefficient use of the processor and poor scalability. In this paper, we therefore introduce a fundamentally different approach that relies entirely on (large) Householder reflectors partially accumulated into block reflectors, by using (compact) WY representations. Even though the new algorithm requires more floating point operations than the state of the art algorithm, extensive experiments on both real and synthetic data indicate that it is still competitive, even in a sequential setting. The new algorithm is conjectured to have better parallel scalability, an idea which is partially supported by early small-scale experiments using multi-threaded BLAS. The design and evaluation of a parallel formulation is future work

A rational QZ method

We propose a rational QZ method for the solution of the dense, unsymmetric generalized eigenvalue problem. This generalization of the classical QZ method operates implicitly on a Hessenberg, Hessenberg pencil instead of on a Hessenberg, triangular pencil. Whereas the QZ method performs nested subspace iteration driven by a polynomial, the rational QZ method allows for nested subspace iteration driven by a rational function, this creates the additional freedom of selecting poles. In this article we study Hessenberg, Hessenberg pencils, link them to rational Krylov subspaces, propose a direct reduction method to such a pencil, and introduce the implicit rational QZ step. The link with rational Krylov subspaces allows us to prove essential uniqueness (implicit Q theorem) of the rational QZ iterates as well as convergence of the proposed method. In the proofs, we operate directly on the pencil instead of rephrasing it all in terms of a single matrix. Numerical experiments are included to illustrate competitiveness in terms of speed and accuracy with the classical approach. Two other types of experiments exemplify new possibilities. First we illustrate that good pole selection can be used to deflate the original problem during the reduction phase, and second we use the rational QZ method to implicitly filter a rational Krylov subspace in an iterative method

A multishift, multipole rational QZ method with aggressive early deflation

The rational QZ method generalizes the QZ method by implicitly supporting rational subspace iteration. In this paper we extend the rational QZ method by introducing shifts and poles of higher multiplicity in the Hessenberg pencil, which is a pencil consisting of two Hessenberg matrices. The result is a multishift, multipole iteration on block Hessenberg pencils which allows one to stick to real arithmetic for a real input pencil. In combination with optimally packed shifts and aggressive early deflation as an advanced deflation technique we obtain an efficient method for the dense generalized eigenvalue problem. In the numerical experiments we compare the results with state-of-the-art routines for the generalized eigenvalue problem and show that we are competitive in terms of speed and accuracy

The geometry and combinatorics of Springer fibers

This survey paper describes Springer fibers, which are used in one of the earliest examples of a geometric representation. We will compare and contrast them with Schubert varieties, another family of subvarieties of the flag variety that play an important role in representation theory and combinatorics, but whose geometry is in many respects simpler. The end of the paper describes a way that Springer fibers and Schubert varieties are related, as well as open questions.Comment: 18 page

Blocked algorithms for the reduction to Hessenberg-triangular form revisited

We present two variants of Moler and Stewart's algorithm for reducing a matrix pair to Hessenberg-triangular (HT) form with increased data locality in the access to the matrices. In one of these variants, a careful reorganization and accumulation of Givens rotations enables the use of efficient level 3 BLAS. Experimental results on four different architectures, representative of current high performance processors, compare the performances of the new variants with those of the implementation of Moler and Stewart's algorithm in subroutine DGGHRD from LAPACK, Dackland and Kågström's two-stage algorithm for the HT form, and a modified version of the latter which requires considerably less flop

Eigenvalue Methods for Interpolation Bases

This thesis investigates eigenvalue techniques for the location of roots of polynomials expressed in the Lagrange basis. Polynomial approximations to functions arise in almost all areas of computational mathematics, since polynomial expressions can be manipulated in ways that the original function cannot. Polynomials are most often expressed in the monomial basis; however, in many applications polynomials are constructed by interpolating data at a series ofpoints. The roots of such polynomial interpolants can be found by computing the eigenvalues of a generalized companion matrix pair constructed directly from the values of the interpolant. This affords the opportunity to work with polynomials expressed directly in the interpolation basis in which they were posed, avoiding the often ill-conditioned transformation between bases. Working within this framework, this thesis demonstrates that computing the roots of polynomials via these companion matrices is numerically stable, and the matrices involved can be reduced in such a way as to significantly lower the number of operations required to obtain the roots. Through examination of these various techniques, this thesis offers insight into the speed, stability, and accuracy of rootfinding algorithms for polynomials expressed in alternative bases

Minimizing Communication in Linear Algebra

In 1981 Hong and Kung proved a lower bound on the amount of communication needed to perform dense, matrix-multiplication using the conventional $O(n^3)$ algorithm, where the input matrices were too large to fit in the small, fast memory. In 2004 Irony, Toledo and Tiskin gave a new proof of this result and extended it to the parallel case. In both cases the lower bound may be expressed as $\Omega$(#arithmetic operations / $\sqrt{M}$), where M is the size of the fast memory (or local memory in the parallel case). Here we generalize these results to a much wider variety of algorithms, including LU factorization, Cholesky factorization, $LDL^T$ factorization, QR factorization, algorithms for eigenvalues and singular values, i.e., essentially all direct methods of linear algebra. The proof works for dense or sparse matrices, and for sequential or parallel algorithms. In addition to lower bounds on the amount of data moved (bandwidth) we get lower bounds on the number of messages required to move it (latency). We illustrate how to extend our lower bound technique to compositions of linear algebra operations (like computing powers of a matrix), to decide whether it is enough to call a sequence of simpler optimal algorithms (like matrix multiplication) to minimize communication, or if we can do better. We give examples of both. We also show how to extend our lower bounds to certain graph theoretic problems. We point out recently designed algorithms for dense LU, Cholesky, QR, eigenvalue and the SVD problems that attain these lower bounds; implementations of LU and QR show large speedups over conventional linear algebra algorithms in standard libraries like LAPACK and ScaLAPACK. Many open problems remain.Comment: 27 pages, 2 table

On computing the eigenvalues of a symplectic pencil

AbstractThis paper presents an algorithm for computing the eigenvalues of a symplectic pencil that arises in one of the commonly used approaches for solving the discrete-time algebraic Riccati equation. The algorithm is numerically efficient and reliable in that it employs only orthogonal transformations and makes use of the structure of the symplectic pencil. It requires about one-fourth the number of floating-point operations that the QZ algorithm uses to compute the eigenvalues of the pencil directly. The proposed method can be regarded as being analogous for the case of symplectic pencils to the method developed by Van Loan for computing the eigenvalues of Hamiltonian matrices