Algorithm 1010

Abstract

Aiming to provide a very accurate, efficient, and robust quartic equation solver for physical applications, we have proposed an algorithm that builds on the previous works of P. Strobach and S. L. Shmakov. It is based on the decomposition of the quartic polynomial into two quadratics, whose coefficients are first accurately estimated by handling carefully numerical errors and afterward refined through the use of the Newton-Raphson method. Our algorithm is very accurate in comparison with other state-of-the-art solvers that can be found in the literature, but (most importantly) it turns out to be very efficient according to our timing tests. A crucial issue for us is the robustness of the algorithm, i.e., its ability to cope with the detrimental effect of round-off errors, no matter what set of quartic coefficients is provided in a practical application. In this respect, we extensively tested our algorithm in comparison to other quartic equation solvers both by considering specific extreme cases and by carrying out a statistical analysis over a very large set of quartics. Our algorithm has also been heavily tested in a physical application, i.e., simulations of hard cylinders, where it proved its absolute reliability as well as its efficiency.