Dykstra’s Algorithm for the Optimal Approximate Symmetric Positive Semidefinite Solution of a Class of Matrix Equations ()
Received 4 December 2015; accepted 4 March 2016; published 7 March 2016

1. Introduction
Throughout this paper, we use
and
to stand for the set of
real matrices and
symmetric positive semidefinite matrices, respectively. We denote the transpose and Moore-Penrose generalized inverse of the matrix A by
and
, respectively. The symbol
stands for
identity matrix. For
denotes the inner product of the matrix A and B. The induced norm is the so-called Frobenius norm, that is,
then
is a real Hilbert space. In order to develop this paper, we need to give the following definition.
Definition 1.1. [1] Let M be a closed convex subset in a real Hilbert space H and u be a point in H, then the point in M nearest to u is called the projection of u onto M and denoted by
, that is to say,
is the solution of the following minimization problem
(1.1)
i.e.
(1.2)
In this paper, we consider the matrix equations
(1.3)
and their matrix nearness problem.
Problem I. Given matrices
and
find
such that
(1.4)
where
![]()
Obviously,
is the symmetric positive semidefinite solution set of the matrix equations (1.3). It is easy to verify that
is a closed convex set, then the solution
of Problem I is unique. In this paper, the unique solution
is called the optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution of Equation (1.3). In particular, if
then the solution
of Problem I is just the least Frobenius norm symmetric positive semidefinite solution of the matrix equations (1.3).
This kind of matrix nearness problem occurs frequently in experimental design, see for instance [2] [3] . Here
may be obtained from experiments, but not satisfy Equation (1.3). The nearest matrix
satisfies Equa- tion (1.3) and is nearest to the given matrix
. Up to now, Equation (1.3) and their matrix nearness problem I have been extensively studied for the past 40 or more years. Navarra-Odell-Young [4] and Wang [5] gave necessary and sufficient conditions for Equation (1.3) having a solution and presented the expression for a general solution. By the projection theorem and matrix decompositions, Liao-Lei-Yuan [6] [7] gave some analytical expressions of the optimal approximate least square symmetric solution of Equation (1.3). Sheng- Chen [8] presented an efficient iterative method to compute the optimal approximate solution for the matrix equations (1.3). Ding-Liu-Ding [9] considered the unique solution of Equation (1.3) and used gradient based iterative algorithm to compute the unique solution. Peng-Hu-Zhang [10] and Chen-Peng-Zhou [11] proposed some iterative methods to compute the symmetric solutions and optimal approximate symmetric solution of Equation (1.3). The (least square) solution and the optimal approximate (least square) solution of Equation (1.3), which is constrained as bisymmetric, reflexive, generalized reflexive, generalized centro-symmetric, were studied in [11] - [17] . Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, the optimal approximate solution of Equation (1.3), which is constrained as symmetric positive semidefinite, (i.e. Problem I) has not been solved. The difficulty of Problem I lies in how to characterize the convex set
. In this paper, we first divided the set
into three sets
and then adopt alternating projections to overcome the difficulty.
Dykstra’s alternating projection algorithm was proposed by Dykstra [18] to treat the problem of finding the projection of a given point onto the intersection of some closed convex sets. It is based on a clear modification of the classical alternating projection algorithm first proposed by Von Neumann [19] , and studied later by Cheney and Goldstein [20] . For an application of Dykstra’s alternating projection algorithm to compute the nearest diagonally dominant matrix see [21] . For a complete survey on Dykstra’s alternation projection algorithm and applications see Deutsch [22] .
In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to compute the optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution of Equation (1.3). We state Problem I as the minimization of a convex quadratic function over the intersection of three closed convex sets in the vector space
From this point of view, Problem I can be solved by the Dykstra’s alternating projection algorithm. If we choose the initial iterative matrix
the least Frobenius norm symmetric positive semidefinite solution of the matrix equations
is obtained. In the end, we use a numerical example to show that the new algorithm is feasible and effective.
2. Dykstra’s Algorithm for Solving Problem I
In this section, we apply Dykstra’s alternating projection algorithm to compute the optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution of Equation (1.3). We first introduce Dykstra’s alternating projection algorithm and its convergence theorem.
In order to find the projection of a given point onto the intersection of a finite number of closed convex sets
Dykstra [18] proposed Dykstra’s alternating projection algorithm which can be stated as follows. This algorithm can be also seen in [1] [23] - [25] .
Dykstra’s Algorithm 2.1
1) Given the initial value
;
2) Set ![]()
3) For ![]()
![]()
For ![]()
,
![]()
End
End
Lemma 2.1. ( [23] , Theorem 2) Let
be closed convex subsets of a real Hilbert space H such that
For any
and any
the sequences
generated by Dykstra’s algorithm 2.1 converge to
that is,
![]()
Now we begin to use Dykstra’s algorithm 2.1 to solve Problem I. Firstly, we define three sets
![]()
It is easy to know that
and if the set
is nonempty, then
(2.1)
On the other hand, it is easy to verify that
and
are closed convex subsets of the real Hilbert space
.
After defining the sets
and
, Problem I can be rewritten as finding
such that
(2.2)
By Definition 1.1 and noting that the equalities (2.2) and (1.2), it is easy to find that
(2.3)
Therefore, Problem I can be converted equivalently into finding the projection
. Now we will use Dykstra’s algorithm 2.1 to compute the projection
. By (2.3), we can get the optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution
of the matrix equations (1.3).
We can see that the key problems to realize Dykstra’s algorithm 2.1 are how to compute the projections
,
and
of a matrix Z onto
and
, respectively. Such problems are perfectly solvable in the following theorems.
Theorem 2.1. Suppose that the set
is nonempty. For a given
matrix Z, we have
![]()
Proof. By Definition 1.1, we know that the projection
is the solution of the following minimization problem
(2.4)
Now we begin to solve the minimization problem (2.4). We first characterize the solution set
and then find
such that (2.4) holds. Noting that the set
is a closed convex set, then the minimization problem (2.4) has a unique solution. Hence
The singular value decomposition of the matrices A and B are given by
(2.5)
where
are orthogonal matrices,
,
,
,
and
are orthogonal matrices,![]()
![]()
![]()
. According to the definition of the Moore-Penrose generalized inverse of a matrix, we have
(2.6)
and
(2.7)
Substituting (2.5) into the matrix equation
we obtain
![]()
which implies
![]()
Let
![]()
Then the matrix equation
can be equivalently written as
![]()
which implies that
(2.8)
(2.9)
(2.10)
(2.11)
By (2.8) we have
![]()
Noting that the set
is nonempty, by (2.5) it is easy to verify that (2.9), (2.10) and (2.11) are identical equations. Hence the general solutions of the matrix equation
can be expressed as
(2.12)
where
are arbitrary, which implies that the entries of the set
can be stated as (2.12).
Consequently,
(2.13)
By (2.13) we know that
if and only if
![]()
Therefore, the solution of the minimization problem (2.4) is
(2.14)
Combining (2.14) and (2.5)-(2.7), we have
![]()
The theorem is proved. ![]()
Theorem 2.2. Suppose that the set
is nonempty. For a given
matrix Z, we have
![]()
Proof. The proof is similar to that of Theorem 2.1 and is omitted here. ![]()
For any
it is easy to verify that
is a symmetric matrix. Then the spectral decomposition of the matrix E is
![]()
where
and
Then by Theorem 2.1 of Higham [26] and Definition 1.1, we have
Theorem 2.3. For a given
matrix Z, we have
![]()
where
![]()
By Dykstra’s algorithm 2.1 and noting that the projection
and
in Theorems 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3, we get a new algorithm to compute the optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution
of the matrix equations (1.3) which can be stated as follows.
Algorithm 2.2
1) Set the initial value ![]()
2) Set ![]()
3) For ![]()
![]()
For ![]()
,
![]()
End
End
By Lemma 2.1 and (2.1), and noting that
and
are closed convex sets, we get the convergence theorem for Algorithm 2.2.
Theorem 2.4. If the set
is nonempty, then the matrix sequences
and
generated by Algorithm 2.2 converge to the projection
that is
![]()
Combining Theorem 2.4 and the equalities (2.3) and (2.2), we have
Theorem 2.5. If the set
is nonempty, then the matrix sequences
and
generated by Algorithm 2.2 converge to optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution
of the matrix equations (1.3). Moreover, if the initial matrix
then the matrix sequences
and
converge to the least Frobenius norm symmetric positive semidefinite solution of the matrix equations ![]()
3. Numerical Experiments
In this section, we give a numerical example to illustrate that the new algorithm is feasible and effective to compute the optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution of the matrix equation (1.3). All programs are written in M ATLAB 7.8. We denote
![]()
and use the practical stopping criterion
.
Example 3.1. Consider the matrix equation (1.3) with
![]()
![]()
![]()
Here we use
and
to stand for
matrix of ones and zeros. It is easy to verify that
is a solution of the matrix equations (1.4), that is to say, the set
is nonempty. Therefore we can use Algorithm 2.2 to compute the optimal symmetric positive semidefinite solution of the matrix equation (1.3).
1) Let
After 41 iterations of Algorithm 2.2, we get the optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution
![]()
and its residual error
![]()
By concrete computations, we know that the distance from
to the solution set
is
![]()
2) Let
After 88 iterations of Algorithm 2.2, we get the optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution
![]()
and its residual error
![]()
By concrete computations, we know that the distance from
to the solution set
is
![]()
3) Let
After 116 iterations of Algorithm 2.2, we get the optimal approximate solution
![]()
which is also the least Frobenius norm symmetric positive semidefinite solution of the matrix equations (1.3), and its residual error
![]()
By concrete computations, we know that the distance from
to the solution set
is
![]()
Example 4.1 shows that Algorithm 2.2 is feasible and effective to compute the optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution of the matrix equations (1.3).
4. Conclusion
In this paper, we state Problem I as the minimization of a convex quadratic function over the intersection of three closed convex sets in the Hilbert space
, then we can use Dykstra’s alternating projection algorithm to compute the optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution of the matrix equations (1.3). If we choose the initial matrix
the least Frobenius norm symmetric positive semidefinite solution of the matrix equations (1.3) can be obtained. A numerical example show that the new algorithm is feasible and effec- tive to compute the optimal approximate symmetric positive semidefinite solution of the matrix equations (1.3).
NOTES
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*The work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.11561015; 11261014; 11301107), Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province (No.2012GXNSFBA053006; 2013GXNSFBA019009).
#Corresponding author.