Skip to content

eigenvalues of a circulant matrix

4 messages · Mulholland, Tom, robin hankin, Globe Trotter +1 more

#
Well since I know nothing about this topic I have lurked so far, but here's my two bob's worth.

Firstly I tried to make sense of Brian's initial reply. I have got no idea who Bellman is and you have not referenced (his/her) work in a way I can access the issues you refer to. So I assumed that's exactly what Brian was talking about.

Secondly. 

toeplitz(1:4)
     [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4]
[1,]    1    2    3    4
[2,]    2    1    2    3
[3,]    3    2    1    2
[4,]    4    3    2    1

require(magic)
 circulant(4)
     [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4]
[1,]    1    2    3    4
[2,]    4    1    2    3
[3,]    3    4    1    2
[4,]    2    3    4    1

So they are obviously two different things. Although I think you may have implied (not stated) that the particular combination you were using resulted in both being exactly the same.

It does appear as if in this case the (X) matrix is circulant. But then I'm no expert in even such simple things.

Then I had no idea where I was going. So I tried the variations in eigen.

I ran you code
x<-scan("h:/t.txt")
y<-x[c(109:216,1:108)]
X<-toeplitz(y)
 and then
numeric(0)

So I didn't get any NAs

t1 <- eigen(X)$vectors
t2 <- eigen(X,symmetric = TRUE)$vectors
[1] TRUE
Then

t2 <- eigen(X,symmetric = TRUE,EISPACK = TRUE)$vectors
[1] FALSE
So there'e obviously more than one way of getting the vectors. Does the second one make more sense to you?

I also noticed in the eigen help that there are references to issues such as "IEEE 754 arithmetic","(They may also differ between methods and between platforms.)" and "or Hermitian if complex". All of these are out of my competence but they do signal to me that there are issues which may relate to hardware, digital arithmetic and other things of that ilk.

I added the comment about complex because I have a vague idea that they are related to imaginary parts that you refer to.

So not coming to any conclusion that makes sense to me, and given that there are often threads about supposed inaccuracies that have answers such as the digits you see are not always what are held by the machine I set my options(digits = 22) and noticed that some of the numbers are still going at the 22 decimal place suggesting that the machine might be incapable of producing perfectly accurate results using digital arithmetic.

My other big sphere of ignorance is complex numbers.

So I tried
X<-toeplitz(complex(real = y))
t1 <- eigen(X)$vectors
[1]  0.068041577278880341+0i -0.068041577140546913+0i  0.068041576864811659+0i -0.068041576452430155+0i
 [5]  0.068041575907139579+0i -0.068041575231135451+0i  0.068041574435267163+0i -0.068041573525828514+0i
 [9]  0.068041572538722991+0i -0.068041571498323253+0i  0.068041570619888622+0i -0.068041570256170081+0i
[13]  0.068041568759931989+0i -0.068041566476633147+0i  0.068041563560502477+0i -0.068041560000305007+0i
[17]  0.068041555538765813+0i -0.068041549792984865+0i  0.068041544123969511+0i -0.068041537810956801+0i
[1]  0.068041381743976906 -0.068041381743976850  0.068041381743976781 -0.068041381743976753  0.068041381743976587
 [6] -0.068041381743976725  0.068041381743976920 -0.068041381743976836  0.068041381743976892 -0.068041381743976781
[11]  0.068041381743976781 -0.068041381743977392  0.068041381743976725 -0.068041381743976753  0.068041381743976753
[16] -0.068041381743976698  0.068041381743976587 -0.068041381743976642  0.068041381743976698 -0.068041381743976490
Which is again different. I have no idea what I'm doing but you do seem to get slightly different answers depending upon which method you use. I do not know if one is superior to the others or where one draws the line in terms of accuracy.

Tom
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
#
Hi everyone.

The following webpage gives a definition of circulant matrix, which 
agrees with the
definition given in the magic package.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/CirculantMatrix.html

best  wishes

rksh
On May 3, 2005, at 08:06 am, Mulholland, Tom wrote:

            
--
Robin Hankin
Uncertainty Analyst
Southampton Oceanography Centre
European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
  tel  023-8059-7743
#
Good point: the Bellman reference is a book:

Introduction to Matrix Analysis by Bellman (1960). McGraw-Hill Series in Matrix
Theory.
--- Robin Hankin <r.hankin at noc.soton.ac.uk> wrote:

            
#
Globe Trotter wrote:

            
--- and republished much later by SIAM.

Kjetil
-- 

Kjetil Halvorsen.

Peace is the most effective weapon of mass construction.
               --  Mahdi Elmandjra