arXiv subjects

Stefano Massei

Publications and source records attributed to Stefano Massei.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

hm-toolbox: Matlab software for HODLR and HSS matrices

Matrices with hierarchical low-rank structure, including HODLR and HSS matrices, constitute a versatile tool to develop fast algorithms for addressing large-scale problems. While existing software packages for such matrices often focus on linear systems, their scope of applications is in fact much wider and includes, for example, matrix functions and eigenvalue problems. In this work, we present a new Matlab toolbox called hm-toolbox, which encompasses this versatility with a broad set of tools for HODLR and HSS matrices, unmatched by existing software. While mostly based on algorithms that can be found in the literature, our toolbox also contains a few new algorithms as well as novel auxiliary functions. Being entirely based on Matlab, our implementation does not strive for optimal performance. Nevertheless, it maintains the favorable complexity of hierarchical low-rank matrices and offers, at the same time, a convenient way of prototyping and experimenting with algorithms. A number of applications illustrate the use of the hm-toolbox.

math.NA↗

arXiv2020

A low-rank technique for computing the quasi-stationary distribution of subcritical Galton-Watson processes

We present a new algorithm for computing the quasi-stationary distribution of subcritical Galton--Watson branching processes. This algorithm is based on a particular discretization of a well-known functional equation that characterizes the quasi-stationary distribution of these processes. We provide a theoretical analysis of the approximate low-rank structure that stems from this discretization, and we extend the procedure to multitype branching processes. We use numerical examples to demonstrate that our algorithm is both more accurate and more efficient than other approaches.

math.NA↗

arXiv2019

Fast solvers for two-dimensional fractional diffusion equations using rank structured matrices

We consider the discretization of time-space diffusion equations with fractional derivatives in space and either 1D or 2D spatial domains. The use of implicit Euler scheme in time and finite differences or finite elements in space, leads to a sequence of dense large scale linear systems describing the behavior of the solution over a time interval. We prove that the coefficient matrices arising in the 1D context are rank structured and can be efficiently represented using hierarchical formats ($\mathcal H$-matrices, HODLR). Quantitative estimates for the rank of the off-diagonal blocks of these matrices are presented. We analyze the use of HODLR arithmetic for solving the 1D case and we compare this strategy with existing methods that exploit the Toeplitz-like structure to precondition the GMRES iteration. The numerical tests demonstrate the convenience of the HODLR format when at least a reasonably low number of time steps is needed. Finally, we explain how these properties can be leveraged to design fast solvers for problems with 2D spatial domains that can be reformulated as matrix equations. The experiments show that the approach based on the use of rank-structured arithmetic is particularly effective and outperforms current state of the art techniques.

math.NA↗

arXiv2019

Low-rank updates and a divide-and-conquer method for linear matrix equations

Linear matrix equations, such as the Sylvester and Lyapunov equations, play an important role in various applications, including the stability analysis and dimensionality reduction of linear dynamical control systems and the solution of partial differential equations. In this work, we present and analyze a new algorithm, based on tensorized Krylov subspaces, for quickly updating the solution of such a matrix equation when its coefficients undergo low-rank changes. We demonstrate how our algorithm can be utilized to accelerate the Newton method for solving continuous-time algebraic Riccati equations. Our algorithm also forms the basis of a new divide-and-conquer approach for linear matrix equations with coefficients that feature hierarchical low-rank structure, such as HODLR, HSS, and banded matrices. Numerical experiments demonstrate the advantages of divide-and-conquer over existing approaches, in terms of computational time and memory consumption.

math.NA↗

arXiv2019

Low-rank updates and divide-and-conquer methods for quadratic matrix equations

In this work, we consider two types of large-scale quadratic matrix equations: Continuous-time algebraic Riccati equations, which play a central role in optimal and robust control, and unilateral quadratic matrix equations, which arise from stochastic processes on 2D lattices and vibrating systems. We propose a simple and fast way to update the solution to such matrix equations under low-rank modifications of the coefficients. Based on this procedure, we develop a divide-and-conquer method for quadratic matrix equations with coefficients that feature a specific type of hierarchical low-rank structure, which includes banded matrices. This generalizes earlier work on linear matrix equations. Numerical experiments indicate the advantages of our newly proposed method versus iterative schemes combined with hierarchical low-rank arithmetic.

math.NA↗

arXiv2019

On maximum volume submatrices and cross approximation for symmetric semidefinite and diagonally dominant matrices

The problem of finding a $k \times k$ submatrix of maximum volume of a matrix $A$ is of interest in a variety of applications. For example, it yields a quasi-best low-rank approximation constructed from the rows and columns of $A$. We show that such a submatrix can always be chosen to be a principal submatrix if $A$ is symmetric semidefinite or diagonally dominant. Then we analyze the low-rank approximation error returned by a greedy method for volume maximization, cross approximation with complete pivoting. Our bound for general matrices extends an existing result for symmetric semidefinite matrices and yields new error estimates for diagonally dominant matrices. In particular, for doubly diagonally dominant matrices the error is shown to remain within a modest factor of the best approximation error. We also illustrate how the application of our results to cross approximation for functions leads to new and better convergence results.

math.NA↗

arXiv2018

Solving rank structured Sylvester and Lyapunov equations

We consider the problem of efficiently solving Sylvester and Lyapunov equations of medium and large scale, in case of rank-structured data, i.e., when the coefficient matrices and the right-hand side have low-rank off-diagonal blocks. This comprises problems with banded data, recently studied by Haber and Verhaegen in "Sparse solution of the Lyapunov equation for large-scale interconnected systems", Automatica, 2016, and by Palitta and Simoncini in "Numerical methods for large-scale Lyapunov equations with symmetric banded data", SISC, 2018, which often arise in the discretization of elliptic PDEs. We show that, under suitable assumptions, the quasiseparable structure is guaranteed to be numerically present in the solution, and explicit novel estimates of the numerical rank of the off-diagonal blocks are provided. Efficient solution schemes that rely on the technology of hierarchical matrices are described, and several numerical experiments confirm the applicability and efficiency of the approaches. We develop a MATLAB toolbox that allows easy replication of the experiments and a ready-to-use interface for the solvers. The performances of the different approaches are compared, and we show that the new methods described are efficient on several classes of relevant problems.

math.NA↗

arXiv2018

Quasi-Toeplitz matrix arithmetic: a MATLAB toolbox

A Quasi Toeplitz (QT) matrix is a semi-infinite matrix of the kind $A=T(a)+E$ where $T(a)=(a_{j-i})_{i,j\in\mathbb Z^+}$, $E=(e_{i,j})_{i,j\in\mathbb Z^+}$ is compact and the norms $\lVert a\rVert_{\mathcal W} = \sum_{i\in\mathbb Z}|a_i|$ and $\lVert E \rVert_2$ are finite. These properties allow to approximate any QT-matrix, within any given precision, by means of a finite number of parameters. QT-matrices, equipped with the norm $\lVert A \rVert_{\mathcal QT}=α\lVert a\rVert_{\mathcal{W}} \lVert E \rVert_2$, for $α= (1+\sqrt 5)/2$, are a Banach algebra with the standard arithmetic operations. We provide an algorithmic description of these operations on the finite parametrization of QT-matrices, and we develop a MATLAB toolbox implementing them in a transparent way. The toolbox is then extended to perform arithmetic operations on matrices of finite size that have a Toeplitz plus low-rank structure. This enables the development of algorithms for Toeplitz and quasi-Toeplitz matrices whose cost does not necessarily increase with the dimension of the problem. Some examples of applications to computing matrix functions and to solving matrix equations are presented, and confirm the effectiveness of the approach.

math.NA↗

arXiv2016

Decay bounds for the numerical quasiseparable preservation in matrix functions

Given matrices $A$ and $B$ such that $B=f(A)$, where $f(z)$ is a holomorphic function, we analyze the relation between the singular values of the off-diagonal submatrices of $A$ and $B$. We provide family of bounds which depend on the interplay between the spectrum of the argument $A$ and the singularities of the function. In particular, these bounds guarantee the numerical preservation of quasiseparable structures under mild hypotheses. We extend the Dunford-Cauchy integral formula to the case in which some poles are contained inside the contour of integration. We use this tool together with the technology of hierarchical matrices ($\mathcal H$-matrices) for the effective computation of matrix functions with quasiseparable arguments.

math.NA↗

arXiv2016

On Functions of quasi Toeplitz matrices

Let $a(z)=\sum_{i\in\mathbb Z}a_iz^i$ be a complex valued continuous function, defined for $|z|=1$, such that $\sum_{i=-\infty}^{+\infty}|ia_i|<\infty$. Consider the semi-infinite Toeplitz matrix $T(a)=(t_{i,j})_{i,j\in\mathbb Z^+}$ associated with the symbol $a(z)$ such that $t_{i,j}=a_{j-i}$. A quasi-Toeplitz matrix associated with the continuous symbol $a(z)$ is a matrix of the form $A=T(a)+E$ where $E=(e_{i,j})$, $\sum_{i,j\in\mathbb Z^+}|e_{i,j}|<\infty$, and is called a CQT-matrix. Given a function $f(x)$ and a CQT matrix $M$, we provide conditions under which $f(M)$ is well defined and is a CQT matrix. Moreover, we introduce a parametrization of CQT matrices and algorithms for the computation of $f(M)$. We treat the case where $f(x)$ is assigned in terms of power series and the case where $f(x)$ is defined in terms of a Cauchy integral. This analysis is applied also to finite matrices which can be written as the sum of a Toeplitz matrix and of a low rank correction.

math.NA↗

arXiv2016

Semi-Infinite Quasi-Toeplitz Matrices with Applications to QBD Stochastic Processes

Denote by $\mathcal{W}_1$ the set of complex valued functions of the form $a(z)=\sum_{i=-\infty}^{+\infty}a_iz^i$ which are continuous on the unit circle, and such that $\sum_{i=-\infty}^{+\infty}|ia_i|<\infty$. We call CQT matrix a quasi-Toeplitz matrix $A$, associated with a continuous symbol $a(z)\in\mathcal W_1$, of the form $A=T(a)+E$, where $T(a)=(t_{i,j})_{i,j\in\mathbb{Z}^+}$ is the semi-infinite Toeplitz matrix such that $t_{i,j}=a_{j-i}$, for $i,j\in\mathbb Z^+$, and $E=(e_{i,j})_{i,j\in\mathbb{Z}^+}$ is a semi-infinite matrix such that $\sum_{i,j=1}^{+\infty}|e_{i,j}|$ is finite. We prove that the class of CQT matrices is a Banach algebra with a suitable sub-multiplicative matrix norm $\|\cdot\|$. We introduce a finite representation of CQT matrices together with algorithms which implement elementary matrix operations. An application to solving quadratic matrix equations of the kind $AX^2+BX+C=0$, encountered in the solution of Quasi-Birth and Death (QBD) stochastic processes with a denumerable set of phases, is presented where $A,B,C$ are CQT matrices.

math.NA↗

arXiv2016

On the decay of the off-diagonal singular values in cyclic reduction

It was recently observed that the singular values of the off-diagonal blocks of the matrix sequences generated by the Cyclic Reduction algorithm decay exponentially. This property was used to solve, with a higher efficiency, certain quadratic matrix equations encountered in the analysis of queueing models. In this paper, we provide a sharp theoretical bound to the basis of this exponential decay together with a tool for its estimation based on a rational interpolation problem. Applications to solving $n\times n$ block tridiagonal block Toeplitz systems with $n\times n$ semiseparable blocks and certain generalized Sylvester equations in $O(n^2\log n)$ arithmetic operations are shown.

math.NA↗

arXiv2016

Efficient cyclic reduction for QBDs with rank structured blocks

We provide effective algorithms for solving block tridiagonal block Toeplitz systems with $m\times m$ quasiseparable blocks, as well as quadratic matrix equations with $m\times m$ quasiseparable coefficients, based on cyclic reduction and on the technology of rank-structured matrices. The algorithms rely on the exponential decay of the singular values of the off-diagonal submatrices generated by cyclic reduction. We provide a formal proof of this decay in the Markovian framework. The results of the numerical experiments that we report confirm a significant speed up over the general algorithms, already starting with the moderately small size $m\approx 10^2$.

math.NA↗