Comparing the Geometry of the Basins of Attraction, the Speed and the Efficiency of Several Numerical Methods

Abstract

We use simple equations in order to compare the basins of attraction on the complex plane, corresponding to a large collection of numerical methods, of several order. Two cases are considered, regarding the total number of the roots, which act as numerical attractors. For both cases we use the iterative schemes for performing a thorough and systematic classification of the nodes on the complex plane. The distributions of the required iterations as well as the probability and their correlations with the corresponding basins of convergence are also discussed. Our numerical calculations suggest that most of the iterative schemes provide relatively similar convergence structures on the complex plane. In addition, several aspects of the numerical methods are compared in an attempt to obtain general conclusions regarding their speed and efficiency. Moreover, we try to determine how the complexity of the each case influences the main characteristics of the numerical methods.