Computational linear algebra over finite fields

We present here algorithms for efficient computation of linear algebra problems over finite fields

A fast solver for linear systems with displacement structure

We describe a fast solver for linear systems with reconstructable Cauchy-like structure, which requires O(rn^2) floating point operations and O(rn) memory locations, where n is the size of the matrix and r its displacement rank. The solver is based on the application of the generalized Schur algorithm to a suitable augmented matrix, under some assumptions on the knots of the Cauchy-like matrix. It includes various pivoting strategies, already discussed in the literature, and a new algorithm, which only requires reconstructability. We have developed a software package, written in Matlab and C-MEX, which provides a robust implementation of the above method. Our package also includes solvers for Toeplitz(+Hankel)-like and Vandermonde-like linear systems, as these structures can be reduced to Cauchy-like by fast and stable transforms. Numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the software.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figure

Fast computation of the matrix exponential for a Toeplitz matrix

The computation of the matrix exponential is a ubiquitous operation in numerical mathematics, and for a general, unstructured $n\times n$ matrix it can be computed in $\mathcal{O}(n^3)$ operations. An interesting problem arises if the input matrix is a Toeplitz matrix, for example as the result of discretizing integral equations with a time invariant kernel. In this case it is not obvious how to take advantage of the Toeplitz structure, as the exponential of a Toeplitz matrix is, in general, not a Toeplitz matrix itself. The main contribution of this work are fast algorithms for the computation of the Toeplitz matrix exponential. The algorithms have provable quadratic complexity if the spectrum is real, or sectorial, or more generally, if the imaginary parts of the rightmost eigenvalues do not vary too much. They may be efficient even outside these spectral constraints. They are based on the scaling and squaring framework, and their analysis connects classical results from rational approximation theory to matrices of low displacement rank. As an example, the developed methods are applied to Merton's jump-diffusion model for option pricing

Accurate and Efficient Expression Evaluation and Linear Algebra

We survey and unify recent results on the existence of accurate algorithms for evaluating multivariate polynomials, and more generally for accurate numerical linear algebra with structured matrices. By "accurate" we mean that the computed answer has relative error less than 1, i.e., has some correct leading digits. We also address efficiency, by which we mean algorithms that run in polynomial time in the size of the input. Our results will depend strongly on the model of arithmetic: Most of our results will use the so-called Traditional Model (TM). We give a set of necessary and sufficient conditions to decide whether a high accuracy algorithm exists in the TM, and describe progress toward a decision procedure that will take any problem and provide either a high accuracy algorithm or a proof that none exists. When no accurate algorithm exists in the TM, it is natural to extend the set of available accurate operations by a library of additional operations, such as $x+y+z$, dot products, or indeed any enumerable set which could then be used to build further accurate algorithms. We show how our accurate algorithms and decision procedure for finding them extend to this case. Finally, we address other models of arithmetic, and the relationship between (im)possibility in the TM and (in)efficient algorithms operating on numbers represented as bit strings.Comment: 49 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl