Melina A. Freitag

Melina A. Freitag, Alastair Spence

In this paper a new fast algorithm for the computation of the distance of a matrix to a nearby defective matrix is presented. The problem is formulated following Alam & Bora (Linear Algebra Appl., 396 (2005), pp.~273--301) and reduces to finding when a parameter-dependent matrix is singular subject to a constraint. The solution is achieved by an extension of the Implicit Determinant Method introduced by Spence & Poulton (J. Comput. Phys., 204 (2005), pp.~65--81). Numerical results for several examples illustrate the performance of the algorithm.

Josie König, Elizabeth Qian, Melina A. Freitag

Bayesian inverse problems use observed data to update a prior probability distribution for an unknown state or parameter of a scientific system to a posterior distribution conditioned on the data. In many applications, the unknown parameter is high-dimensional, making computation of the posterior expensive due to the need to sample in a high-dimensional space and the need to evaluate an expensive high-dimensional forward model relating the unknown parameter to the data. However, inverse problems often exhibit low-dimensional structure due to the fact that the available data are only informative in a low-dimensional subspace of the parameter space. Dimension reduction approaches exploit this structure by restricting inference to the low-dimensional subspace informed by the data, which can be sampled more efficiently. Further computational cost reductions can be achieved by replacing expensive high-dimensional forward models with cheaper lower-dimensional reduced models. In this work, we propose new dimension and model reduction approaches for linear Bayesian inverse problems with rank-deficient prior covariances, which arise in many practical inference settings. The dimension reduction approach is applicable to general linear Bayesian inverse problems whereas the model reduction approaches are specific to the problem of inferring the initial condition of a linear dynamical system. We provide theoretical approximation guarantees as well as numerical experiments demonstrating the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed approaches.

Melina A. Freitag, Daniel L. H. Green

Weak constraint four-dimensional variational data assimilation is an important method for incorporating data (typically observations) into a model. The linearised system arising within the minimisation process can be formulated as a saddle point problem. A disadvantage of this formulation is the large storage requirements involved in the linear system. In this paper, we present a low-rank approach which exploits the structure of the saddle point system using techniques and theory from solving large scale matrix equations. Numerical experiments with the linear advection-diffusion equation, and the non-linear Lorenz-95 model demonstrate the effectiveness of a low-rank Krylov subspace solver when compared to a traditional solver.

Martin Redmann, Melina A. Freitag

When solving linear stochastic differential equations numerically, usually a high order spatial discretisation is used. Balanced truncation (BT) and singular perturbation approximation (SPA) are well-known projection techniques in the deterministic framework which reduce the order of a control system and hence reduce computational complexity. This work considers both methods when the control is replaced by a noise term. We provide theoretical tools such as stochastic concepts for reachability and observability, which are necessary for balancing related model order reduction of linear stochastic differential equations with additive Lévy noise. Moreover, we derive error bounds for both BT and SPA and provide numerical results for a specific example which support the theory.

Patrick Kürschner, Melina A. Freitag

The rational Krylov subspace method (RKSM) and the low-rank alternating directions implicit (LR-ADI) iteration are established numerical tools for computing low-rank solution factors of large-scale Lyapunov equations. In order to generate the basis vectors for the RKSM, or extend the low-rank factors within the LR-ADI method the repeated solution to a shifted linear system is necessary. For very large systems this solve is usually implemented using iterative methods, leading to inexact solves within this inner iteration. We derive theory for a relaxation strategy within these inexact solves, both for the RKSM and the LR-ADI method. Practical choices for relaxing the solution tolerance within the inner linear system are then provided. The theory is supported by several numerical examples.