Linear algebra algorithms as dynamical systems

Abstract

Any logical procedure that is used to reason or to infer either deductively or inductively, so as to draw conclusions or make decisions, can be called, in a broad sense, a realization process. A realization process usually assumes the recursive form that one state develops into another state by following a certain specific rule. Such an action is generally formalized as a dynamical system. In mathematics, especially for existence questions, a realization process often appears in the form of an iterative procedure or a differential equation. For years researchers have taken great effort to describe, analyse, and modify realization processes for various applications.The thrust in this exposition is to exploit the notion of dynamical systems as a special realization process for problems arising from the field of linear algebra. Several differential equations whose solutions evolve in submanifolds of matrices are cast in fairly general frameworks, of which special cases have been found to afford unified and fundamental insights into the structure and behaviour of existing discrete methods and, now and then, suggest new and improved numerical methods. In some cases, there are remarkable connections between smooth flows and discrete numerical algorithms. In other cases, the flow approach seems advantageous in tackling very difficult open problems. Various aspects of the recent development and application in this direction are discussed in this paper.