Felipe Cucker

Felipe Cucker, Teresa Krick, Michael Shub

We describe and analyze a numerical algorithm for computing the homology (Betti numbers and torsion coefficients) of real projective varieties. Here numerical means that the algorithm is numerically stable (in a sense to be made precise). Its cost depends on the condition of the input as well as on its size and is singly exponential in the number of variables (the dimension of the ambient space) and polynomial in the condition and the degrees of the defining polynomials. In addition, we show that outside of an exceptional set of measure exponentially small in the size of the data, the algorithm takes exponential time.

Peter Bürgisser, Felipe Cucker

We describe algorithms for computing eigenpairs (eigenvalue--eigenvector) of a complex $n\times n$ matrix $A$. These algorithms are numerically stable, strongly accurate, and theoretically efficient (i.e., polynomial-time). We do not believe they outperform in practice the algorithms currently used for this computational problem. The merit of our paper is to give a positive answer to a long-standing open problem in numerical linear algebra.

Felipe Cucker, Teresa Krick, Gregorio Malajovich et al.

In a recent paper (Cucker, Krick, Malajovich and Wschebor, A Numerical Algorithm for Zero Counting. I: Complexity and accuracy, J. Compl.,24:582-605, 2008) we analyzed a numerical algorithm for computing the number of real zeros of a polynomial system. The analysis relied on a condition number kappa(f) for the input system f. In this paper, we look at kappa(f) as a random variable derived from imposing a probability measure on the space of polynomial systems and give bounds for both the tail P{kappa(f) > a} and the expected value E(log kappa(f)).

Peter Buergisser, Felipe Cucker

We perform a smoothed analysis of the condition number of rectangular matrices. We prove that, asymptotically, the expected value of this condition number depends only of the elongation of the matrix, and not on the center and variance of the underlying probability distribution.

Irenee Briquel, Felipe Cucker, Javier Pena et al.

A solution for Smale's 17th problem, for the case of systems with bounded degree was recently given. This solution, an algorithm computing approximate zeros of complex polynomial systems in average polynomial time, assumed infinite precision. In this paper we describe a finite-precision version of this algorithm. Our main result shows that this version works within the same time bounds and requires a precision which, on the average, amounts to a polynomial amount of bits in the mantissa of the intervening floating-point numbers.

Felipe Cucker, Teresa Krick

We extend to Gaussian distributions a result providing smoothed analysis estimates for condition numbers given as relativized distances to illposedness. We also introduce a notion of local analysis meant to capture the behavior of these condition numbers around a point.

Dennis Cheung, Felipe Cucker

We prove an O(log n) bound for the expected value of the logarithm of the componentwise (and, a fortiori, the mixed) condition number of a random sparse n x n matrix. As a consequence, small bounds on the average loss of accuracy for triangular linear systems follow.

Dennis Cheung, Felipe Cucker

We perform a smoothed analysis of the componentwise condition numbers for determinant computation, matrix inversion, and linear equations solving for sparse n times n matrices. The bounds we obtain for the ex- pectations of the logarithm of these condition numbers are, in all three cases, of the order O(log n). As a consequence, small bounds on the smoothed loss of accuracy for triangular linear systems follow.

Felipe Cucker, Javier Peña, Vera Roshchina

We describe and analyze an interior-point method to decide feasibility problems of second-order conic systems. A main feature of our algorithm is that arithmetic operations are performed with finite precision. Bounds for both the number of arithmetic operations and the finest precision required are exhibited.

Peter Buergisser, Felipe Cucker, Elisa Rocha Cardozo

We prove that the expectation of the logarithm of the condition number of each of the zeros of the characteristic polynomial of a complex standard Gaussian matrix is $Ω(n)$. This may provide an explanation for the common wisdom in numerical linear algebra that advises against computing eigenvalues via root-finding for characteristic polynomials.

Alexander Bastounis, Felipe Cucker, Anders C. Hansen

The arrival of AI techniques in computations, with the potential for hallucinations and non-robustness, has made trustworthiness of algorithms a focal point. However, trustworthiness of the many classical approaches are not well understood. This is the case for feature selection, a classical problem in the sciences, statistics, machine learning etc. Here, the LASSO optimisation problem is standard. Despite its widespread use, it has not been established when the output of algorithms attempting to compute support sets of minimisers of LASSO in order to do feature selection can be trusted. In this paper we establish how no (randomised) algorithm that works on all inputs can determine the correct support sets (with probability $> 1/2$) of minimisers of LASSO when reading approximate input, regardless of precision and computing power. However, we define a LASSO condition number and design an efficient algorithm for computing these support sets provided the input data is well-posed (has finite condition number) in time polynomial in the dimensions and logarithm of the condition number. For ill-posed inputs the algorithm runs forever, hence, it will never produce a wrong answer. Furthermore, the algorithm computes an upper bound for the condition number when this is finite. Finally, for any algorithm defined on an open set containing a point with infinite condition number, there is an input for which the algorithm will either run forever or produce a wrong answer. Our impossibility results stem from generalised hardness of approximation -- within the Solvability Complexity Index (SCI) hierarchy framework -- that generalises the classical phenomenon of hardness of approximation.

Diego Armentano, Carlos Beltrán, Peter Bürgisser et al.

Smale's 17th problem asks for an algorithm which finds an approximate zero of polynomial systems in average polynomial time (see Smale 2000). The main progress on Smale's problem is Beltrán-Pardo (2011) and Bürgisser-Cucker (2010). In this paper we will improve on both approaches and we prove an important intermediate result. Our main results are Theorem 1 on the complexity of a randomized algorithm which improves the result of Beltrán-Pardo (2011), Theorem 2 on the average of the condition number of polynomial systems which improves the estimate found in Bürgisser-Cucker (2010), and Theorem 3 on the complexity of finding a single zero of polynomial systems. This last Theorem is the main result of Bürgisser-Cucker (2010). We give a proof of it relying only on homotopy methods, thus removing the need for the elimination theory methods used in Bürgisser-Cucker (2010). We build on methods developed in Armentano et al. (2015).

Diego Armentano, Carlos Beltrán, Peter Bürgisser et al.

We describe algorithms for computing eigenpairs (eigenvalue-eigenvector pairs) of a complex $n\times n$ matrix $A$. These algorithms are numerically stable, strongly accurate, and theoretically efficient (i.e., polynomial-time). We do not believe they outperform in practice the algorithms currently used for this computational problem. The merit of our paper is to give a positive answer to a long-standing open problem in numerical linear algebra.

Peter Buergisser, Felipe Cucker

The 17th of the problems proposed by Steve Smale for the 21st century asks for the existence of a deterministic algorithm computing an approximate solution of a system of $n$ complex polynomials in $n$ unknowns in time polynomial, on the average, in the size $N$ of the input system. A partial solution to this problem was given by Carlos Beltran and Luis Miguel Pardo who exhibited a randomized algorithm doing so. In this paper we further extend this result in several directions. Firstly, we exhibit a linear homotopy algorithm that efficiently implements a non-constructive idea of Mike Shub. This algorithm is then used in a randomized algorithm, call it LV, a la Beltran-Pardo. Secondly, we perform a smoothed analysis (in the sense of Spielman and Teng) of algorithm LV and prove that its smoothed complexity is polynomial in the input size and $σ^{-1}$, where $σ$ controls the size of of the random perturbation of the input systems. Thirdly, we perform a condition-based analysis of LV. That is, we give a bound, for each system $f$, of the expected running time of LV with input $f$. In addition to its dependence on $N$ this bound also depends on the condition of $f$. Fourthly, and to conclude, we return to Smale's 17th problem as originally formulated for deterministic algorithms. We exhibit such an algorithm and show that its average complexity is $N^{O(\log\log N)}$. This is nearly a solution to Smale's 17th problem.

Felipe Cucker, Teresa Krick, Gregorio Malajovich et al.

We show a Condition Number Theorem for the condition number of zero counting for real polynomial systems. That is, we show that this condition number equals the inverse of the normalized distance to the set of ill-posed systems (i.e., those having multiple real zeros). As a consequence, a smoothed analysis of this condition number follows.

Felipe Cucker, Raphael Hauser, Martin Lotz

The purpose of this note is to extend the results on uniform smoothed analysis of condition numbers from \cite{BuCuLo:07} to the case where the perturbation follows a radially symmetric probability distribution. In particular, we will show that the bounds derived in \cite{BuCuLo:07} still hold in the case of distributions whose density has a singularity at the center of the perturbation, which we call {\em adversarial}.

Peter Buergisser, Felipe Cucker, Martin Lotz

We prove a general theorem providing smoothed analysis estimates for conic condition numbers of problems of numerical analysis. Our probability estimates depend only on geometric invariants of the corresponding sets of ill-posed inputs. Several applications to linear and polynomial equation solving show that the estimates obtained in this way are easy to derive and quite accurate. The main theorem is based on a volume estimate of ε-tubular neighborhoods around a real algebraic subvariety of a sphere, intersected with a disk of radius σ. Besides εand σ, this bound depends only the dimension of the sphere and on the degree of the defining equations.

Peter Buergisser, Felipe Cucker, Martin Lotz

Smoothed analysis of complexity bounds and condition numbers has been done, so far, on a case by case basis. In this paper we consider a reasonably large class of condition numbers for problems over the complex numbers and we obtain smoothed analysis estimates for elements in this class depending only on geometric invariants of the corresponding sets of ill-posed inputs. These estimates are for a version of smoothed analysis proposed in this paper which, to the best of our knowledge, appears to be new. Several applications to linear and polynomial equation solving show that estimates obtained in this way are easy to derive and quite accurate.