# scipy.sparse.linalg.lsqr

scipy.sparse.linalg.lsqr(A, b, damp=0.0, atol=1e-06, btol=1e-06, conlim=100000000.0, iter_lim=None, show=False, calc_var=False, x0=None)

  Find the least-squares solution to a large, sparse, linear system of equations.

  The function solves `Ax = b` or `min ||Ax - b||^2` or `min ||Ax - b||^2 + d^2 ||x - x0||^2`.

  The matrix A may be square or rectangular (over-determined or under-determined), and may have any rank.

      1. Unsymmetric equations --    solve  Ax = b

      2. Linear least squares  --    solve  Ax = b
                                     in the least-squares sense

      3. Damped least squares  --    solve  (   A    )*x = (    b    )
                                            ( damp*I )     ( damp*x0 )
                                     in the least-squares sense

  Parameters:
    A{sparse matrix, ndarray, LinearOperator}

      Representation of an m-by-n matrix. Alternatively, `A` can be a linear operator which can produce `Ax` and `A^T x` using, e.g., `scipy.sparse.linalg.LinearOperator`.

    b array_like, shape (m,)

      Right-hand side vector `b`.

    damp float

      Damping coefficient. Default is 0.

    atol, btol float, optional

      Stopping tolerances. `lsqr` continues iterations until a certain backward error estimate is smaller than some quantity depending on atol and btol. Let `r = b - Ax` be the residual vector for the current approximate solution `x`. If `Ax = b` seems to be consistent, `lsqr` terminates when `norm(r) <= atol * norm(A) * norm(x) + btol * norm(b)`. Otherwise, `lsqr` terminates when `norm(A^H r) <= atol * norm(A) * norm(r)`. If both tolerances are 1.0e-6 (default), the final `norm(r)` should be accurate to about 6 digits. (The final `x` will usually have fewer correct digits, depending on `cond(A)` and the size of LAMBDA.) If atol or btol is None, a default value of 1.0e-6 will be used. Ideally, they should be estimates of the relative error in the entries of `A` and `b` respectively. For example, if the entries of `A` have 7 correct digits, set `atol = 1e-7`. This prevents the algorithm from doing unnecessary work beyond the uncertainty of the input data.

    conlim float, optional

      Another stopping tolerance. lsqr terminates if an estimate of `cond(A)` exceeds conlim. For compatible systems `Ax = b`, conlim could be as large as 1.0e+12 (say). For least-squares problems, conlim should be less than 1.0e+8. Maximum precision can be obtained by setting `atol = btol = conlim = zero`, but the number of iterations may then be excessive. Default is 1e8.

    iter_lim int, optional

      Explicit limitation on number of iterations (for safety).

    show bool, optional

      Display an iteration log. Default is False.

    calc_var bool, optional

      Whether to estimate diagonals of `(A'A + damp^2*I)^{-1}`.

    x0 array_like, shape (n,), optional

      Initial guess of x, if None zeros are used. Default is None.

      New in version 1.0.0.

  Returns:
    x ndarray of float

      The final solution.

    istop int

      Gives the reason for termination. 1 means x is an approximate solution to Ax = b. 2 means x approximately solves the least-squares problem.

    itn int

      Iteration number upon termination.

    r1norm float

      `norm(r)`, where `r = b - Ax`.

    r2norm float

      `sqrt( norm(r)^2 + damp^2 * norm(x - x0)^2 )`. Equal to r1norm if `damp == 0`.

    anorm float

      Estimate of Frobenius norm of `Abar = [[A]; [damp*I]]`.

    acond float

      Estimate of `cond(Abar)`.

    arnorm float

      Estimate of `norm(A'@r - damp^2*(x - x0))`.

    xnorm float

      `norm(x)`

    var ndarray of float

      If `calc_var` is True, estimates all diagonals of `(A'A)^{-1}` (if `damp == 0`) or more generally `(A'A + damp^2*I)^{-1}`. This is well defined if A has full column rank or `damp > 0`. (Not sure what var means if `rank(A) < n` and `damp = 0.`)

  Notes

  LSQR uses an iterative method to approximate the solution. The number of iterations required to reach a certain accuracy depends strongly on the scaling of the problem. Poor scaling of the rows or columns of A should therefore be avoided where possible.

  For example, in problem 1 the solution is unaltered by row-scaling. If a row of A is very small or large compared to the other rows of A, the corresponding row of ( A b ) should be scaled up or down.

  In problems 1 and 2, the solution x is easily recovered following column-scaling. Unless better information is known, the nonzero columns of A should be scaled so that they all have the same Euclidean norm (e.g., 1.0).

  In problem 3, there is no freedom to re-scale if damp is nonzero. However, the value of damp should be assigned only after attention has been paid to the scaling of A.

  The parameter damp is intended to help regularize ill-conditioned systems, by preventing the true solution from being very large. Another aid to regularization is provided by the parameter acond, which may be used to terminate iterations before the computed solution becomes very large.

  If some initial estimate `x0` is known and if `damp == 0`, one could proceed as follows:

  > 1. Compute a residual vector `r0 = b - A@x0`.

  > 2. Use LSQR to solve the system `A@dx = r0`.

  > 3. Add the correction dx to obtain a final solution `x = x0 + dx`.

  This requires that `x0` be available before and after the call to LSQR. To judge the benefits, suppose LSQR takes k1 iterations to solve A@x = b and k2 iterations to solve A@dx = r0. If x0 is “good”, norm(r0) will be smaller than norm(b). If the same stopping tolerances atol and btol are used for each system, k1 and k2 will be similar, but the final solution x0 + dx should be more accurate. The only way to reduce the total work is to use a larger stopping tolerance for the second system. If some value btol is suitable for A@x = b, the larger value btol*norm(b)/norm(r0) should be suitable for A@dx = r0.

  Preconditioning is another way to reduce the number of iterations. If it is possible to solve a related system `M@x = b` efficiently, where M approximates A in some helpful way (e.g. M - A has low rank or its elements are small relative to those of A), LSQR may converge more rapidly on the system `A@M(inverse)@z = b`, after which x can be recovered by solving M@x = z.

  If A is symmetric, LSQR should not be used!

  Alternatives are the symmetric conjugate-gradient method (cg) and/or SYMMLQ. SYMMLQ is an implementation of symmetric cg that applies to any symmetric A and will converge more rapidly than LSQR. If A is positive definite, there are other implementations of symmetric cg that require slightly less work per iteration than SYMMLQ (but will take the same number of iterations).

  References

  [1]

  C. C. Paige and M. A. Saunders (1982a). “LSQR: An algorithm for sparse linear equations and sparse least squares”, ACM TOMS 8(1), 43-71.

  [2]

  C. C. Paige and M. A. Saunders (1982b). “Algorithm 583. LSQR: Sparse linear equations and least squares problems”, ACM TOMS 8(2), 195-209.

  [3]

  M. A. Saunders (1995). “Solution of sparse rectangular systems using LSQR and CRAIG”, BIT 35, 588-604.

  Examples

      >>> import numpy as np
      >>> from scipy.sparse import csc_matrix
      >>> from scipy.sparse.linalg import lsqr
      >>> A = csc_matrix([[1., 0.], [1., 1.], [0., 1.]], dtype=float)

  The first example has the trivial solution `[0, 0]`

      >>> b = np.array([0., 0., 0.], dtype=float)
      >>> x, istop, itn, normr = lsqr(A, b)[:4]
      >>> istop
      0
      >>> x
      array([ 0.,  0.])

  The stopping code istop=0 returned indicates that a vector of zeros was found as a solution. The returned solution x indeed contains `[0., 0.]`. The next example has a non-trivial solution:

      >>> b = np.array([1., 0., -1.], dtype=float)
      >>> x, istop, itn, r1norm = lsqr(A, b)[:4]
      >>> istop
      1
      >>> x
      array([ 1., -1.])
      >>> itn
      1
      >>> r1norm
      4.440892098500627e-16

  As indicated by istop=1, `lsqr` found a solution obeying the tolerance limits. The given solution `[1., -1.]` obviously solves the equation. The remaining return values include information about the number of iterations (itn=1) and the remaining difference of left and right side of the solved equation. The final example demonstrates the behavior in the case where there is no solution for the equation:

      >>> b = np.array([1., 0.01, -1.], dtype=float)
      >>> x, istop, itn, r1norm = lsqr(A, b)[:4]
      >>> istop
      2
      >>> x
      array([ 1.00333333, -0.99666667])
      >>> A.dot(x)-b
      array([ 0.00333333, -0.00333333,  0.00333333])
      >>> r1norm
      0.005773502691896255

  istop indicates that the system is inconsistent and thus x is rather an approximate solution to the corresponding least-squares problem. r1norm contains the norm of the minimal residual that was found.