This book deals primarily with the numerical solution of linear systems of equations by iterative methods. The first part of the book is intended to serve as a textbook for a numerical linear algebra course. The material assumes the reader has a basic knowledge of linear algebra, such as set theory and matrix algebra, however it is demanding for students who are not afraid of theory. To assist the reader, the more difficult passages have been marked, the definitions for each chapter are collected at the beginning of the chapter, and numerous exercises are included throughout the text. The second part of the book serves as a monograph introducing recent results in the iterative solution of linear systems, mainly using preconditioned conjugate gradient methods. This book should be a valuable resource for students and researchers alike wishing to learn more about iterative methods.

Dedicated to the memory of Peter HenriciSummary. A recursive way of constructing preconditioning matrices for the stiffness matrix in the discretization of selfadjoint second order elliptic boundary value problems is proposed. It is based on a sequence of nested finite element spaces with the usual nodal basis functions. Using a nodeordering corresponding to the nested meshes, the finite element stiffness matrix is recursively split up into two-level block structures and is factored approximately in such a way that any successive Schur complement is replaced (approximated) by a matrix defined recursively and therefore only implicitely given. To solve a system with this matrix we need to perform a fixed number (v) of iterations on the preceding level using as an iteration matrix the preconditioning matrix already defined on that level. It is shown that by a proper choice of iteration parameters it suffices to use v>(1-72) 2 iterations for the so constructed v-fold V-cycle (where v = 2 corresponds to a W-cycle) preconditioning matrices to be spectrally equivalent to the stiffness matrix. The conditions involve only the constant 7 in the strengthened C.-B.-S. inequality for the corresponding two-level hierarchical basis function spaces and are therefore independent of the regularity of the solution for instance. If we use successive uniform refinements of the meshes the method is of optimal order of computational complexity, if 72< w Under reasonable assumptions of the finite element mesh, the condition numbers turn out to be so small that there are in practice few reasons to use an accelerated iterative method like the conjugate gradient method, for instance.

No abstract

Summary. We derive new estimates for the rate of convergence of the conjugate gradient method by utilizing isolated eigenvalues of parts of the spectrum. We present a new generalized version of an incomplete factorization method and compare the derived estimates of the number of iterations with the number actually found for some elliptic difference equations and for a similar problem with a model empirical distribution function.

Summary. A generalized s-term truncated conjugate gradient method of least square type, proposed in [1 a, b], is extended to a form more suitable for proving when the truncated version is identical to the full-term version. Advantages with keeping a control term in the truncated version is pointed out. A computationally efficient new algorithm, based on a special inner product with a small demand of storage is also presented.We also give simplified and slightly extended proofs of termination of the iterative sequence and of existence of an s-term recursion, identical to the full-term version. Important earlier results on this latter topic are found in [15, 16, 8 and 11].