Marc Baboulin

Marc Baboulin, Serge Gratton

We derive closed formulas for the condition number of a linear function of the total least squares solution. Given an over determined linear system Ax=b, we show that this condition number can be computed using the singular values and the right singular vectors of [A,b] and A. We also provide an upper bound that requires the computation of the largest and the smallest singular value of [A,b] and the smallest singular value of A. In numerical examples, we compare these values and the resulting forward error bounds with existing error estimates.

Marc Baboulin, Jack Dongarra, Serge Gratton et al.

In this paper, we address the accuracy of the results for the overdetermined full rank linear least squares problem. We recall theoretical results obtained in Arioli, Baboulin and Gratton, SIMAX 29(2):413--433, 2007, on conditioning of the least squares solution and the components of the solution when the matrix perturbations are measured in Frobenius or spectral norms. Then we define computable estimates for these condition numbers and we interpret them in terms of statistical quantities. In particular, we show that, in the classical linear statistical model, the ratio of the variance of one component of the solution by the variance of the right-hand side is exactly the condition number of this solution component when perturbations on the right-hand side are considered. We also provide fragment codes using LAPACK routines to compute the variance-covariance matrix and the least squares conditioning and we give the corresponding computational cost. Finally we present a small historical numerical example that was used by Laplace in Theorie Analytique des Probabilites, 1820, for computing the mass of Jupiter and experiments from the space industry with real physical data.