In this paper we suggest a new algorithm for the computation of a best rank
one approximation of tensors, called alternating singular value decomposition.
This method is based on the computation of maximal singular values and the
corresponding singular vectors of matrices. We also introduce a modification
for this method and the alternating least squares method, which ensures that
alternating iterations will always converge to a semi-maximal point. (A
critical point in several vector variables is semi-maximal if it is maximal
with respect to each vector variable, while other vector variables are kept
fixed.) We present several numerical examples that illustrate the computational
performance of the new method in comparison to the alternating least square
method.Comment: 17 pages and 6 figure