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# Auxiliary Classes

Apart from the main solver classes listed in table SLEPc modules, SLEPc contains several auxiliary classes:

- `ST`: Spectral Transformation, fully described in chapter ST: Spectral Transformation.

- `FN`: Mathematical Function, required in application code to represent the constituent functions of the nonlinear operator in split form (chapter NEP: Nonlinear Eigenvalue Problems), as well as the function to be used when computing the action of a matrix function on a vector (chapter MFN: Matrix Function).

- `RG`: Region, a way to define a region of the complex plane.

- `DS`: Direct Solver (or Dense System), can be seen as a wrapper to LAPACK functions used within SLEPc.

- `BV`: Basis Vectors, provides the concept of a block of vectors that represent the basis of a subspace.

The first three classes, `ST`, `FN` and `RG`, are relevant for end users, while `DS` and `BV` are intended mainly for SLEPc developers. Below we provide a brief description of `FN`, `RG`, `DS` and `BV`.

## FN: Mathematical Functions

The `FN` class provides a few predefined mathematical functions, including rational functions (of which polynomials are a particular case) and exponentials. Objects of this class are instantiated by providing the values of the relevant parameters. `FN` objects are created with `FNCreate()` and it is necessary to select the type of function (rational, exponential, etc.) with `FNSetType()`. Table Mathematical functions available as FN objects lists available functions.

Mathematical functions available as `FN` objects
Function | `FNType` | Expression
--- | --- | ---
Polynomial and rational | `FNRATIONAL` | \(p(x)/q(x)\)
Exponential | `FNEXP` | \(e^x\)
Logarithm | `FNLOG` | \(\log x\)
\(\varphi\)-functions | `FNPHI` | \(\varphi_0(x)\), \(\varphi_1(x)\), …
Square root | `FNSQRT` | \(\sqrt{x}\)
Inverse square root | `FNINVSQRT` | \(x^{-\frac{1}{2}}\)
Combine two functions | `FNCOMBINE` | See text

Parameters common to all `FN` types are the scaling factors, which are set with:

    FNSetScale(FN fn,PetscScalar alpha,PetscScalar beta);

where `alpha` multiplies the argument and `beta` multiplies the result. With this, the actual function is \(\beta\cdot f(\alpha\cdot x)\) for a given function \(f(\cdot)\). For instance, an exponential function \(f(x)=e^x\) will turn into

(1)\[g(x)=\beta e^{\alpha x}.\]

In a rational function there are specific parameters, namely the coefficients of the numerator and denominator,

(2)\[r(x)=\frac{p(x)}{q(x)} =\frac{\nu_{n-1}x^{n-1}+\cdots+\nu_1x+\nu_0}{\delta_{m-1}x^{m-1}+\cdots+\delta_1x+\delta_0}.\]

These parameters are specified with:

    FNRationalSetNumerator(FN fn,PetscInt np,PetscScalar pcoeff[]);
    FNRationalSetDenominator(FN fn,PetscInt nq,PetscScalar qcoeff[]);

Here, polynomials are passed as an array with high order coefficients appearing in low indices.

The \(\varphi\)-functions are given by

(3)\[\varphi_0(x)=e^x,\qquad \varphi_1(x)=\frac{e^x-1}{x},\qquad \varphi_k(x)=\frac{\varphi_{k-1}(x)-1/(k-1)!}{x},\]

where the index \(k\) must be specified with `FNPhiSetIndex()`.

Whenever the solvers need to compute \(f(x)\) or \(f'(x)\) on a given scalar \(x\), the following functions are invoked:

    FNEvaluateFunction(FN fn,PetscScalar x,PetscScalar *y)
    FNEvaluateDerivative(FN fn,PetscScalar x,PetscScalar *y)

The function can also be evaluated as a matrix function, \(B=f(A)\), where \(A,B\) are small, dense, square matrices. This is done with `FNEvaluateFunctionMat()`. Note that for a rational function, the corresponding expression would be \(q(A)^{-1}p(A)\). For computing functions such as the exponential of a small matrix \(A\), several methods are available. When the matrix \(A\) is symmetric, the default is to compute \(f(A)\) using the eigendecomposition \(A=Q\Lambda Q^*\), for instance the exponential would be computed as \(\exp(A)=Q\,\mathrm{diag}(e^{\lambda_i})Q^*\). In the general case, it is necessary to have recourse to one of the methods discussed in, e.g., [Higham and Al-Mohy, 2010].

Finally, there is a mechanism to combine simple functions in order to create more complicated functions. For instance, the function

(4)\[f(x) = (1-x^2) \exp\left( \frac{-x}{1+x^2} \right)\]

can be represented with an expression tree with three leaves (one exponential function and two rational functions) and two interior nodes (one of them is the root, \(f(x)\)). Interior nodes are simply `FN` objects of type `FNCOMBINE` that specify how the two children must be combined (with either addition, multiplication, division or function composition):

    FNCombineSetChildren(FN fn,FNCombineType comb,FN f1,FN f2)

The combination of \(f_1\) and \(f_2\) with division will result in \(f_1(x)/f_2(x)\) and \(f_2(A)^{-1}f_1(A)\) in the case of matrices.

## RG: Region

The `RG` object defines a region of the complex plane, that can be used to specify where eigenvalues must be sought. Currently, the following types of regions are available:

- A (generalized) interval, defined as \([a,b]\times[c,d]\), where the four parameters can be set with `RGIntervalSetEndpoints()`. This covers the particular cases of an interval on the real axis (setting \(c=d=0\)), the left halfplane \([-\infty,0]\times[-\infty,+\infty]\), a quadrant, etc. See figure Interval region defined via de RG class.

Interval region defined via de RG class

- A polygon defined by its vertices, given via `RGPolygonSetVertices()`. See figure Polygon region defined via de RG class.

Polygon region defined via de RG class

- An ellipse defined by its center, radius and vertical scale (1 by default), specified with `RGEllipseSetParameters()`. See figure Ellipse region defined via de RG class.

Ellipse region defined via de RG class

- A ring region similar to an ellipse but consisting of a thin stripe along the ellipse with optional start and end angles. See figure Ring region defined via de RG class. The parameters are set with `RGRingSetParameters()`.

Ring region defined via de RG class

Check table Regions available as RG objects for the names that should be used in each case.

Regions available as `RG` objects
Region Type | `RGType` | Options Database
--- | --- | ---
(Generalized) Interval | `RGINTERVAL` | `interval`
Polygon | `RGPOLYGON` | `polygon`
Ellipse | `RGELLIPSE` | `ellipse`
Ring | `RGRING` | `ring`

Sometimes it is useful to specify the complement of a certain region, e.g., the part of the complex plane outside an ellipse. This can be achieved with:

    RGSetComplement(RG rg,PetscBool flg)

or in the command line with `-rg_complement`.

By default, a newly created `RG` object that is not set a type nor parameters must represent the whole complex plane (the same as `RGINTERVAL` with values \([-\infty,+\infty]\times[-\infty,+\infty]\)). We call this the trivial region, and provide a function to test this situation:

    RGIsTrivial(RG rg,PetscBool *trivial)

Another useful operation is to check whether a given point of the complex plane is inside the region or not:

    RGCheckInside(RG rg,PetscInt n,PetscScalar ar[],PetscScalar ai[],PetscInt *inside)

Note that the point is represented as two PetscScalar’s, similarly to eigenvalues in SLEPc.

## DS: Direct Solver (or Dense System)

The `DS` class can be seen as a wrapper to LAPACK functions [Anderson et al., 1999] used within SLEPc. It is mostly an internal object that need not be called by end users.

Many of the iterative eigensolvers implemented in SLEPc, such as Krylov-Schur or LOBPCG, perform a projection onto a low-dimensional subspace, e.g., \(M=V^*AV\), where \(M\) is a dense matrix of small dimension (compared to the size of the original problem) and may or may not have a special structure such as Hessenberg or tridiagonal. Computing the full solution of an eigenproblem associated with matrix \(M\) is necessary to continue the outer iterative eigensolver, and this is typically done by calling a LAPACK function.

In case of parallel runs with several MPI processes, the result of the projection, \(M\), is available in all processes and all of them solve the dense eigenproblem redundantly. Although this behavior can be changed slightly (see `DSSetParallel()`), the computation done in `DS` should be considered a sequential step of the overall algorithm, because we assume the size of \(M\) is small. That is why it is relevant for parallel efficiency to keep the size of \(M\) bounded, see discussion in Computing a Large Portion of the Spectrum.

Due to the wide range of eigenproblems covered by SLEPc, the projected eigenproblem also has many variants, represented by the `DSType`.

Note

The projected problem associated with `MFN` solvers is a matrix function calculation, which is implemented in `FN` and not `DS`.

Not all `DS` types are covered by LAPACK subroutines, particularly `DSGHIEP`, `DSHSVD`, `DSPEP`, and `DSNEP`. Hence `DS` provides implementations for solving those problems. In many cases, several methods are available, and this includes the case where LAPACK provides several subroutines for the same problem. The user can select a solution method with an integer set via `DSSetMethod()`.

The user interface is organized in a way that accommodates to the needs of iterative eigensolvers. The computation is split in three stages, `DSSolve()`, `DSSort()` and `DSVectors()`, which are typically called at different times. There are also convenience functions for truncating a previously computed solution, `DSTruncate()`, or to process the additional row present in \(M\) in case of Krylov methods, see `DSUpdateExtraRow()`, which results in the typical arrowhead form when restarting Lanczos, for instance.

To manipulate matrix \(M\) and other matrices associated with the projected problem, the `DS` interface provides a list of dense matrices, see `DSMatType`, and operations to work with them, such as `DSGetMat()` or `DSGetArray()`.

## BV: Basis Vectors

The `BV` class may be useful for advanced users, so we briefly describe it here for completeness. `BV` is a convenient way of handling a collection of vectors that often operate together, rather than working with an array of Vec. It can be seen as a generalization of Vec to a tall-skinny matrix with several columns.

Operations available for `BV` objects
Operation | Block version | Column version | Vector version
--- | --- | --- | ---
\(Y=X\) | `BVCopy()` | `BVCopyColumn()` | `BVCopyVec()`
\(Y=\beta Y+\alpha XQ\) | `BVMult()` | `BVMultColumn()` | `BVMultVec()`
\(M=Y^*\!AX\) | `BVMatProject()` | – | –
\(M=Y^*X\) | `BVDot()` | `BVDotColumn()` | `BVDotVec()`
\(Y=\alpha Y\) | `BVScale()` | `BVScaleColumn()` | –
\(r=\|X\|_{type}\) | `BVNorm()` | `BVNormColumn()` | `BVNormVec()`
Set to random values | `BVSetRandom()` | `BVSetRandomColumn()` | –
Orthogonalize | `BVOrthogonalize()` | `BVOrthogonalizeColumn()` | `BVOrthogonalizeVec()`

Table Operations available for BV objects shows a summary of the operations offered by the `BV` class, with variants that operate on the whole `BV`, on a single column, or on an external Vec object. Missing variants can be achieved simply with Vec and Mat operations. Other available variants not shown in the table are `BVMultInPlace()`, `BVMultInPlaceHermitianTranspose()` and `BVOrthogonalizeSomeColumn()`.

Most SLEPc solvers use a `BV` object to represent the working subspace basis. In particular, orthogonalization operations are mostly confined within `BV`. Hence, `BV` provides options for specifying the method of orthogonalization of vectors (Gram-Schmidt) as well as the method of block orthogonalization, see `BVSetOrthogonalization()`.

References

[And99]

E. Anderson, Z. Bai, C. Bischof, L. S. Blackford, J. Demmel, J. Dongarra, J. Du Croz, A. Greenbaum, S. Hammarling, A. McKenney, and D. Sorensen. LAPACK Users' Guide. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA, third edition, 1999.

[Hig10]

N. J. Higham and A. H. Al-Mohy. Computing matrix functions. Acta Numerica, 19:159–208, 2010. doi:10.1017/S0962492910000036.