CSAR Noon Seminar

Joerg Liesen, UIUC/CSAR

DATE: Wednesday, November 28, 2001
TIME: 12:00 Noon
PLACE: 2240 DCL
1304 W. Springfield Ave., Urbana, IL

TITLE: Fast Solvers for Indefinite Linear Systems Applied in Constrained Optimization and Potential Fluid Flow

ABSTRACT

In this talk we will consider the numerical solution of indefinite linear systems. Such systems arise in a variety of applications, including linearized Navier-Stokes equations, saddle-point and linear least-squares problems, and constrained optimization. Our focus is on block two-by-two systems known as KKT sytems in optimization or Stokes systems in fluid dynamics. We will present a new class of preconditioners for solving such systems based on splittings of the (1,1) block, A=D-E, where D is easy to invert. Different splittings lead to different preconditioners, and we will show some theoretical results about the preconditioned matrices, e.g., their eigenvalue distributions.

Results related to the eigenvalue and eigenvector structure of the preconditioned matrices will allow us to discuss the convergence behavior of Krylov subspace methods such as GMRES for these matrices. In addition, we will show how to solve the preconditioned linear systems by a fixed point iteration. This iteration is guaranteed to converge whenever the splitting of the (1,1) block A is regular, i.e., whenever the spectral radius of D \ E is less than one. In particular, the iteration converges whenever A is strictly diagonally dominant, and D is chosen to be the diagonal of A.

Numerical examples will include applications in constrained optimization (arising in surface parameterization) as well as finite element approximations of the potential fluid flow problem.

The talk is based on joint work in progress with Eric de Sturler.