GNU Scientific Library Reference Manual - Third Edition (v1.12) by M. Galassi, J. Davies, J. Theiler, B. Gough, G. Jungman, P. Alken, M. Booth, F. Rossi Paperback (6"x9"), 592 pages, 60 figures ISBN 0954612078 RRP £24.95 ($39.95) Get a printed copy>>>

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14.8 Examples

The following program computes the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the 4-th order Hilbert matrix, H(i,j) = 1/(i + j + 1).

#include <stdio.h>
#include <gsl/gsl_math.h>
#include <gsl/gsl_eigen.h>

int
main (void)
{
  double data[] = { 1.0  , 1/2.0, 1/3.0, 1/4.0,
                    1/2.0, 1/3.0, 1/4.0, 1/5.0,
                    1/3.0, 1/4.0, 1/5.0, 1/6.0,
                    1/4.0, 1/5.0, 1/6.0, 1/7.0 };

  gsl_matrix_view m 
    = gsl_matrix_view_array (data, 4, 4);

  gsl_vector *eval = gsl_vector_alloc (4);
  gsl_matrix *evec = gsl_matrix_alloc (4, 4);

  gsl_eigen_symmv_workspace * w = 
    gsl_eigen_symmv_alloc (4);
  
  gsl_eigen_symmv (&m.matrix, eval, evec, w);

  gsl_eigen_symmv_free (w);

  gsl_eigen_symmv_sort (eval, evec, 
                        GSL_EIGEN_SORT_ABS_ASC);
  
  {
    int i;

    for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)
      {
        double eval_i 
           = gsl_vector_get (eval, i);
        gsl_vector_view evec_i 
           = gsl_matrix_column (evec, i);

        printf ("eigenvalue = %g\n", eval_i);
        printf ("eigenvector = \n");
        gsl_vector_fprintf (stdout, 
                            &evec_i.vector, "%g");
      }
  }

  gsl_vector_free (eval);
  gsl_matrix_free (evec);

  return 0;
}

Here is the beginning of the output from the program,

$ ./a.out 
eigenvalue = 9.67023e-05
eigenvector = 
-0.0291933
0.328712
-0.791411
0.514553
...

This can be compared with the corresponding output from gnu octave,

octave> [v,d] = eig(hilb(4));
octave> diag(d)  
ans =

   9.6702e-05
   6.7383e-03
   1.6914e-01
   1.5002e+00

octave> v 
v =

   0.029193   0.179186  -0.582076   0.792608
  -0.328712  -0.741918   0.370502   0.451923
   0.791411   0.100228   0.509579   0.322416
  -0.514553   0.638283   0.514048   0.252161

Note that the eigenvectors can differ by a change of sign, since the sign of an eigenvector is arbitrary.

The following program illustrates the use of the nonsymmetric eigensolver, by computing the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the Vandermonde matrix V(x;i,j) = x_i^{n - j} with x = (-1,-2,3,4).

#include <stdio.h>
#include <gsl/gsl_math.h>
#include <gsl/gsl_eigen.h>

int
main (void)
{
  double data[] = { -1.0, 1.0, -1.0, 1.0,
                    -8.0, 4.0, -2.0, 1.0,
                    27.0, 9.0, 3.0, 1.0,
                    64.0, 16.0, 4.0, 1.0 };

  gsl_matrix_view m 
    = gsl_matrix_view_array (data, 4, 4);

  gsl_vector_complex *eval = gsl_vector_complex_alloc (4);
  gsl_matrix_complex *evec = gsl_matrix_complex_alloc (4, 4);

  gsl_eigen_nonsymmv_workspace * w = 
    gsl_eigen_nonsymmv_alloc (4);
  
  gsl_eigen_nonsymmv (&m.matrix, eval, evec, w);

  gsl_eigen_nonsymmv_free (w);

  gsl_eigen_nonsymmv_sort (eval, evec, 
                           GSL_EIGEN_SORT_ABS_DESC);
  
  {
    int i, j;

    for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)
      {
        gsl_complex eval_i 
           = gsl_vector_complex_get (eval, i);
        gsl_vector_complex_view evec_i 
           = gsl_matrix_complex_column (evec, i);

        printf ("eigenvalue = %g + %gi\n",
                GSL_REAL(eval_i), GSL_IMAG(eval_i));
        printf ("eigenvector = \n");
        for (j = 0; j < 4; ++j)
          {
            gsl_complex z = 
              gsl_vector_complex_get(&evec_i.vector, j);
            printf("%g + %gi\n", GSL_REAL(z), GSL_IMAG(z));
          }
      }
  }

  gsl_vector_complex_free(eval);
  gsl_matrix_complex_free(evec);

  return 0;
}

Here is the beginning of the output from the program,

$ ./a.out 
eigenvalue = -6.41391 + 0i
eigenvector = 
-0.0998822 + 0i
-0.111251 + 0i
0.292501 + 0i
0.944505 + 0i
eigenvalue = 5.54555 + 3.08545i
eigenvector = 
-0.043487 + -0.0076308i
0.0642377 + -0.142127i
-0.515253 + 0.0405118i
-0.840592 + -0.00148565i
...

This can be compared with the corresponding output from gnu octave,

octave> [v,d] = eig(vander([-1 -2 3 4]));
octave> diag(d)
ans =

  -6.4139 + 0.0000i
   5.5456 + 3.0854i
   5.5456 - 3.0854i
   2.3228 + 0.0000i

octave> v
v =

 Columns 1 through 3:

  -0.09988 + 0.00000i  -0.04350 - 0.00755i  -0.04350 + 0.00755i
  -0.11125 + 0.00000i   0.06399 - 0.14224i   0.06399 + 0.14224i
   0.29250 + 0.00000i  -0.51518 + 0.04142i  -0.51518 - 0.04142i
   0.94451 + 0.00000i  -0.84059 + 0.00000i  -0.84059 - 0.00000i

 Column 4:

  -0.14493 + 0.00000i
   0.35660 + 0.00000i
   0.91937 + 0.00000i
   0.08118 + 0.00000i

Note that the eigenvectors corresponding to the eigenvalue 5.54555 + 3.08545i differ by the multiplicative constant 0.9999984 + 0.0017674i which is an arbitrary phase factor of magnitude 1.