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Virginia Tech

Analysis of the BiCG Method

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The Biconjugate Gradient (BiCG) method is an iterative Krylov subspace method that utilizes a 3-term recurrence. BiCG is the basis of several very popular methods, such as BiCGStab. The short recurrence makes BiCG preferable to other Krylov methods because of decreased memory usage and CPU time. However, BiCG does not satisfy any optimality conditions and it has been shown that for up to n/2-1 iterations, a special choice of the left starting vector can cause BiCG to follow {em any} 3-term recurrence. Despite this apparent sensitivity, BiCG often converges well in practice. This paper seeks to explain why BiCG converges so well, and what conditions can cause BiCG to behave poorly. We use tools such as the singular value decomposition and eigenvalue decomposition to establish bounds on the residuals of BiCG and make links between BiCG and optimal Krylov methods.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Mathematics
Department dc:contributor.department
Mathematics
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2013

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Renardy, Marissa
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • de Sturler, Eric
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Rossi, John F.
  • Linnell, Peter A.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:934
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/50922

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Renardy, Marissa. Analysis of the BiCG Method. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/50922