Newton Methods to Solve a System of Nonlinear Algebraic Equations

Fundamental insight into the solution of systems of nonlinear equations was provided by Powell. It was found that Newton iterations, with exact line searches, did not converge to a stationary point of the natural merit function, i.e., the Euclidean norm of the residuals. Extensive numerical simulati...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Goh, Bean San, McDonald, D.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11654
_version_ 1848747864048533504
author Goh, Bean San
McDonald, D.
author_facet Goh, Bean San
McDonald, D.
author_sort Goh, Bean San
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Fundamental insight into the solution of systems of nonlinear equations was provided by Powell. It was found that Newton iterations, with exact line searches, did not converge to a stationary point of the natural merit function, i.e., the Euclidean norm of the residuals. Extensive numerical simulation of Powell's equations produced the unexpected result that Newton iterations converged to the solution from all initial points, where the function is defined, or from those points where the Jacobian is nonsingular, if no line search is used. The significance of Powell's example is that an important requirement exists when utilizing Newton's method to solve such a system of nonlinear equations. Specifically, a merit function, which is used in a line search, must have properties consistent with those of a Lyapunov function to provide sufficient conditions for convergence. This implies that level sets of the merit function are properly nested, either globally, or in some finite local region. Therefore, they are topologically equivalent to concentric spherical surfaces, either globally or in a finite local region. Furthermore, an exact line search at a point, far from the solution, may be counterproductive. This observation, and a primary aim of the present analysis, is to demonstrate that it is desirable to construct new Newton iterations, which do not require a merit function with associated line searches. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T06:55:55Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-11654
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T06:55:55Z
publishDate 2015
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-116542017-09-13T14:58:46Z Newton Methods to Solve a System of Nonlinear Algebraic Equations Goh, Bean San McDonald, D. Fundamental insight into the solution of systems of nonlinear equations was provided by Powell. It was found that Newton iterations, with exact line searches, did not converge to a stationary point of the natural merit function, i.e., the Euclidean norm of the residuals. Extensive numerical simulation of Powell's equations produced the unexpected result that Newton iterations converged to the solution from all initial points, where the function is defined, or from those points where the Jacobian is nonsingular, if no line search is used. The significance of Powell's example is that an important requirement exists when utilizing Newton's method to solve such a system of nonlinear equations. Specifically, a merit function, which is used in a line search, must have properties consistent with those of a Lyapunov function to provide sufficient conditions for convergence. This implies that level sets of the merit function are properly nested, either globally, or in some finite local region. Therefore, they are topologically equivalent to concentric spherical surfaces, either globally or in a finite local region. Furthermore, an exact line search at a point, far from the solution, may be counterproductive. This observation, and a primary aim of the present analysis, is to demonstrate that it is desirable to construct new Newton iterations, which do not require a merit function with associated line searches. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11654 10.1007/s10957-014-0544-4 restricted
spellingShingle Goh, Bean San
McDonald, D.
Newton Methods to Solve a System of Nonlinear Algebraic Equations
title Newton Methods to Solve a System of Nonlinear Algebraic Equations
title_full Newton Methods to Solve a System of Nonlinear Algebraic Equations
title_fullStr Newton Methods to Solve a System of Nonlinear Algebraic Equations
title_full_unstemmed Newton Methods to Solve a System of Nonlinear Algebraic Equations
title_short Newton Methods to Solve a System of Nonlinear Algebraic Equations
title_sort newton methods to solve a system of nonlinear algebraic equations
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11654