Approximate Solution of Operator Equations

One of the most important chapters in modern functional analysis is the theory of approximate methods for solution of various mathematical problems. Besides providing considerably simplified approaches to numerical methods, the ideas of functional analysis have also given rise to essentially new computation schemes in problems of linear algebra, differential and integral equations, nonlinear analysis, and so on. The general theory of approximate methods includes many known fundamental results. We refer to the classical work of Kantorovich; the investigations of projection methods by Bogolyubov, Krylov, Keldysh and Petrov, much furthered by Mikhlin and Pol'skii; Tikho­ nov's methods for approximate solution of ill-posed problems; the general theory of difference schemes; and so on. During the past decade, the Voronezh seminar on functional analysis has systematically discussed various questions related to numerical methods; several advanced courses have been held at Voronezh Uni­ versity on the application of functional analysis to numerical mathe­ matics. Some of this research is summarized in the present monograph. The authors' aim has not been to give an exhaustive account, even of the principal known results. The book consists of five chapters.

This volume presents a unified approach to constructing iterative methods for solving irregular operator equations and provides rigorous theoretical analysis for several classes of these methods. The analysis of methods includes convergence theorems as well as necessary and sufficient conditions for their convergence at a given rate.

Many problems in science and engineering have their mathematical formulation as an operator equation Tx=y, where T is a linear or nonlinear operator between certain function spaces. In practice, such equations are solved approximately using numerical methods, as their exact solution may not often be possible or may not be worth looking for due to physical constraints.

Complexity theory has become an increasingly important theme in mathematical research. This book deals with an approximate solution of differential or integral equations by algorithms using incomplete information. This situation often arises for equations of the form Lu = f where f is some function defined on a domain and L is a differential operator.