Special Section: 2012 Copper Mountain Conference

Abstract

The Twelfth Copper Mountain Conference on Iterative Methods was held March 25--30, 2012, in Copper Mountain, Colorado. The meeting featured more than 150 presentations on a wide range of topics in scientific computing, including Krylov subspace methods, preconditioning techniques, multigrid methods, domain decomposition, graph partitioning, nonlinear solvers, algorithms for eigenvalue computations, iterative methods in optimization, and so forth. Similar to other recent Copper Mountain meetings, several talks dealt with implementation aspects on current computer architectures, such as GPUs. Other talks addressed aspects of discretization methods relevant to iterative solution. A number of talks covered iterative solution methods in applications including compressed sensing, neutronics, incompressible resistive magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), density functional theory, radiative transfer, ocean simulation, image processing, fluid mechanics, electromagnetics, and many more areas. One especially encouraging aspect of the 2012 conference was the very large proportion of student attendees (61 of a total of 182 participants), which bodes well for the future of the field. Howard Elman (University of Maryland) and Ray Tuminaro (Sandia National Laboratories) served as conference co-chairs. This was Howard's last Copper Mountain Conference as co-chair after having served in this capacity since the 2004 edition. On behalf of the entire Scientific Committee, it is a pleasure to extend to Howard sincere thanks for his service and exceptional contributions to the success of the conference over all these years. Management services were provided by Annette Anthony of Front Range Scientific Computations, Inc. The Conference gratefully acknowledges financial support from the U.S. Department of Energy, IBM, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and the U.S. National Science Foundation. The Copper Mountain Conference is organized in cooperation with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). Submissions to this special section were open to the scientific community, as advertised in advance on websites of the SIAM Journal of Scientific Computing and the Copper Mountain Conference. The 23 papers in this section give a broad picture of the field of iterative methods and related issues in scientific computing. The variety of topics covered by these papers mirrors the wide array of fields represented at the conference. There are papers on Krylov methods (both theory and implementation aspects), papers on algebraic preconditioners, papers on multigrid methods, papers addressing the numerical solution of non-standard problems involving partial differential equations (e.g., with fuzzy coefficients), and several papers focusing on the use of iterative techniques in applications ranging from the investigation of the microscopic world (electronic structure of materials) to that of the large-scale universe (astronomical imaging). Between these two extremes we find papers on neutron transport, MHD, radiative transfer, electromagnetics, incompressible flow, medical imaging, compressed sensing, finance, and ocean modeling. The guest editorial board worked very hard to insure a rigorous peer-review process while meeting deadlines. Special thanks are due to Mitch Chernoff (SIAM Publications Manager) and Brittni Holland (SIAM Editorial Associate) for their efforts on this special section. We believe that the papers collected in this special section demonstrate the ever-increasing role of iterative methods in the solution of challenging problems in a wide variety of scientific and engineering areas, as well as the need for continuing research in this important field. Michele Benzi Guest Editor Guest associate editors: Xiao-Chuan Cai, Iain Duff, Howard Elman, Kirk Jordan, Tim Kelley, Misha Kilmer, Sven Leyffer, Ira Livshits, Tom Manteuffel, Steve McCormick, Luke Olson, John Shadid, David Silvester, Ray Tuminaro, Homer Walker, Carol Woodward, Irad Yavneh