Eigenproblem Basics and Algorithms

Abstract

Some might say that the eigenproblem is one of the examples people discovered by looking at the sky and wondering. Even though it was formulated to explain the movement of the planets, today it has become the ansatz of solving many linear and nonlinear problems. Formulation in the terms of the eigenproblem is one of the key tools to solve complex problems, especially in the area of molecular geometry. However, the basic concept is difficult without proper preparation. A review paper covering basic concepts and algorithms is very useful. This review covers the basics of the topic. Definitions are provided for defective, Hermitian, Hessenberg, modal, singular, spectral, symmetric, skew-symmetric, skew-Hermitian, triangular, and Wishart matrices. Then, concepts of characteristic polynomial, eigendecomposition, eigenpair, eigenproblem, eigenspace, eigenvalue, and eigenvector are subsequently introduced. Faddeev–LeVerrier, von Mises, Gauss–Jordan, Pohlhausen, Lanczos–Arnoldi, Rayleigh–Ritz, Jacobi–Davidson, and Gauss–Seidel fundamental algorithms are given, while others (Francis–Kublanovskaya, Gram–Schmidt, Householder, Givens, Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno, Davidon–Fletcher–Powell, and Saad–Schultz) are merely discussed. The eigenproblem has thus found its use in many topics. The applications discussed include solving Bessel’s, Helmholtz’s, Laplace’s, Legendre’s, Poisson’s, and Schrödinger’s equations. The algorithm extracting the first principal component is also provided.

Keywords

• algorithms
• characteristic polynomial
• eigendecomposition
• eigenfunction
• eigenpair
• eigenproblem