Search

Given an input matrix polynomial whose coefficients are floating point numbers, we consider the problem of finding the nearest matrix polynomial which has rank at most a specified value. This generalizes the problem of finding a nearest matrix polynomial that is algebraically singular with a prescribed lower bound on the dimension given in a previous paper by the authors. In this paper we prove that such lower rank matrices at minimal distance always exist, satisfy regularity conditions, and are all isolated and surrounded by a basin of attraction of non-minimal solutions. In addition, we present an iterative algorithm which, on given input sufficiently close to a rank-at-most matrix, produces that matrix. The algorithm is efficient and is proven to converge quadratically given a sufficiently good starting point. An implementation demonstrates the effectiveness and numerical robustness of our algorithm in practice., 31 Pages

We consider the problem of computing the nearest matrix polynomial with a non-trivial Smith Normal Form. We show that computing the Smith form of a matrix polynomial is amenable to numeric computation as an optimization problem. Furthermore, we describe an effective optimization technique to find a nearby matrix polynomial with a non-trivial Smith form. The results are then generalized to include the computation of a matrix polynomial having a maximum specified number of ones in the Smith Form (i.e., with a maximum specified McCoy rank). We discuss the geometry and existence of solutions and how our results can be used for an error analysis. We develop an optimization-based approach and demonstrate an iterative numerical method for computing a nearby matrix polynomial with the desired spectral properties. We also describe an implementation of our algorithms and demonstrate the robustness with examples in Maple .

Matrix polynomials appear in many areas of computational algebra, control systems theory, differential equations, and mechanics, typically with real or complex coefficients. Because of numerical error and instability, a matrix polynomial may appear of considerably higher rank (generically full rank), while being very close to a rank-deficient matrix. "Close" is defined naturally under the Frobenius norm on the underlying coefficient matrices of the matrix polynomial. In this paper we consider the problem of finding the nearest rank-deficient matrix polynomial to an input matrix polynomial, that is, the nearest square matrix polynomial which is algebraically singular. We prove that such singular matrices at minimal distance always exist (and we are never in the awkward situation having an infimum but no actual matrix polynomial at minimal distance). We also show that singular matrices at minimal distance are all isolated, and are surrounded by a basin of attraction of non-minimal solutions. Finally, we present an iterative algorithm which, on given input sufficiently close to a rank-deficient matrix, produces that matrix. The algorithm is efficient and is proven to converge quadratically given a sufficiently good starting point. An implementation demonstrates the effectiveness and numerical robustness in practice.

Differential (Ore) type polynomials with "approximate" polynomial coefficients are introduced. These provide an effective notion of approximate differential operators, with a strong algebraic structure. We introduce the approximate Greatest Common Right Divisor Problem (GCRD) of differential polynomials, as a non-commutative generalization of the well-studied approximate GCD problem. Given two differential polynomials, we present an algorithm to find nearby differential polynomials with a non-trivial GCRD, where nearby is defined with respect to a suitable coefficient norm. Intuitively, given two linear differential polynomials as input, the (approximate) GCRD problem corresponds to finding the (approximate) differential polynomial whose solution space is the intersection of the solution spaces of the two inputs. The approximate GCRD problem is proven to be locally well-posed. A method based on the singular value decomposition of a differential Sylvester matrix is developed to produce an initial approximation of the GCRD. With a sufficiently good initial approximation, Newton iteration is shown to converge quadratically to an optimal solution. Finally, sufficient conditions for existence of a solution to the global problem are presented along with examples demonstrating that no solution exists when these conditions are not satisfied.