The QR Algorithm Revisited
SIAM REVIEW c 2008 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 133–145 ∗ The QR Algorithm Revisited † David S. Watkins Abstract. The QR algorithm is still one of the most important methods for computing eigenvalues and eigenvectors of matrices. Most discussions of the QR algorithm begin with a very basic version and move by steps toward the versions of the algorithm that are actually used. This paper outlines a pedagogical path that leads directly to the implicit multishift QR algorithms that are used in practice, bypassing the basic QR algorithm completely. Key words. eigenvalue, eigenvector, QR algorithm, Hessenberg form AMS subject classifications. 65F15, 15A18 DOI. 10.1137/060659454 1. Introduction. For many years the QR algorithm [7], [8], [9], [25] has been our most important tool for computing eigenvalues and eigenvectors of matrices. In recent years other algorithms have arisen [1], [4], [5], [6], [11], [12] that may supplant QR in the arena of symmetric eigenvalue problems. However, for the general, nonsymmetric eigenvalue problem, QR is still king. Moreover, the QR algorithm is a key auxiliary routine used by most algorithms for computing eigenpairs of large sparse matrices, for example, the implicitly restarted Arnoldi process [10], [13], [14] and the Krylov–Schur algorithm [15]. Early in my career I wrote an expository paper entitled “Understanding the QR algorithm,” which was published in SIAM Review in 1982 [16]. It was not my first publication, but it was my first paper in numerical linear algebra, and it marked a turning point in my career: I’ve been stuck on eigenvalue problems ever since.
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