GLT sequences and automatic computation of the symbol

Abstract

Spectral and singular value symbols are valuable tools to analyse the eigenvalue or singular value distributions of matrix-sequences in the Weyl sense. More recently, Generalized Locally Toeplitz (GLT) sequences of matrices have been introduced for the spectral/singular value study of the numerical approximations of differential operators in several contexts. As an example, such matrix-sequences stem from the large linear systems approximating Partial Differential Equations (PDEs), Fractional Differential Equations (FDEs), Integro Differential Equations (IDEs), using any discretization on reasonable grids via local methods, such as Finite Differences, Finite Elements, Finite Volumes, Isogeometric Analysis, Discontinuous Galerkin etc. Studying the asymptotic spectral behaviour of GLT sequences is useful in analysing classical techniques for the solution of the corresponding PDEs/FDEs/IDEs and in designing novel fast and efficient methods for the corresponding large linear systems or related large eigenvalue problems. The theory of GLT sequences, in combination with the results concerning the asymptotic spectral distribution of perturbed sequences of matrices, is one of the most powerful and successful tools for computing the spectral symbol f. In this regard, it would be beneficial to design an automatic procedure to compute the spectral symbols of such matrix-sequences and Ahmed Ratnani partially pursued it. Here, in the case of one-dimensional and two-dimensional differential problems, we continue in this direction by proposing an automatic procedure for computing the symbol of the underlying sequences of matrices, assuming that it is a GLT sequence satisfying mild conditions.