Subsection 5.4.5 Cholesky factorization and solving LLS
¶Recall from Section 4.2 that the solution \(\hat x \in \C^n \) to the linear least-squares (LLS) problem
equals the solution to the normal equations
Since \(A^H A \) is Hermitian, it would be good to take advantage of that special structure to factor it more cheaply. If \(A^H A \) were HPD, then the Cholesky factorization can be employed. Fortunately, from Homework 5.4.1.1 we know that if \(A \) has linearly independent columns, then \(A^H A \) is HPD. Thus, the steps required to solve the LLS problem (5.4.2) when \(A \in \Cmxn \) Are
Form \(B = A^H A \text{.}\) Cost: approximately \(m n^2 \) flops.
Factor \(B = L L^H \) (Cholesky factorization). Cost: approximately \(n^3/3 \) flops.
Compute \(y = A^H b \text{.}\) Cost: approximately \(2 m n\) flops.
Solve \(L z = y \text{.}\) Cost: approximately \(n^2 \) flops.
Solve \(L^H \hat x = z \text{.}\) Cost: approximately \(n^2 \) flops.
for a total of, approximately, \(m n^2 + n^3/3 \) flops.
Ponder This 5.4.5.1.
Consider \(A \in \C^{m \times n} \) with linearly independent columns. Recall that \(A \) has a QR factorization, \(A = Q R \) where \(Q \) has orthonormal columns and \(R \) is an upper triangular matrix with positive diagonal elements. How are the Cholesky factorization of \(A^H A \) and the QR factorization of \(A \) related?