Interval unions.

This paper introduces interval union arithmetic, a new concept which extends the traditional interval arithmetic. Interval unions allow to manipulate sets of disjoint intervals and provide a natural way to represent the extended interval division. Considering interval unions lead to simplifications of the interval Newton method as well as of other algorithms for solving interval linear systems. This paper does not aim at describing the complete theory of interval union analysis, but rather at giving basic definitions and some fundamental properties, as well as showing theoretical and practical usefulness of interval unions in a few selected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]