Backward Error of Polynomial Eigenproblems Solved by Linearization

The most widely used approach for solving the polynomial eigenvalue problem P (λ)x = (∑m i=0 λ Ai ) x = 0 in n × n matrices Ai is to linearize to produce a larger order pencil L(λ) = λX + Y , whose eigensystem is then found by any method for generalized eigenproblems. For a given polynomial P , infinitely many linearizations L exist and approximate eigenpairs of P computed via linearization can have widely varying backward errors. We show that if a certain one-sided factorization relating L to P can be found then a simple formula permits recovery of right eigenvectors of P from those of L, and the backward error of an approximate eigenpair of P can be bounded in terms of the backward error for the corresponding approximate eigenpair of L. A similar factorization has the same implications for left eigenvectors. We use this technique to derive backward error bounds depending only on the norms of the Ai for the companion pencils and for the vector space DL(P ) of pencils recently identified by Mackey, Mackey, Mehl, and Mehrmann. In all cases, sufficient conditions are identified for an optimal backward error for P . These results are shown to be entirely consistent with those of Higham, Mackey, and Tisseur on the conditioning of linearizations of P . Other contributions of this work are a block scaling of the companion pencils that yields improved backward error bounds; a demonstration that the bounds are applicable to certain structured linearizations of structured polynomials; and backward error bounds specialized to the quadratic case, including analysis of the benefits of a scaling recently proposed by Fan, Lin, and Van Dooren. The results herein make no assumptions on the stability of the method applied to L or whether the method is direct or iterative.