The QR Algorithm: Sweeping a Matrix into Schur Form
An interactive live film: the entries of A_k stand as bars; QR steps shrink everything below the diagonal and the diagonal settles on the eigenvalues, with the rates on a log panel. Choose a shift that kills the bottom entry in five steps.
Narration
Here is a matrix that is not symmetric, with eigenvalues four, two and one. Each bar is the size of one entry: blue on the diagonal, red below it, grey above.
One step of the QR algorithm factors the matrix as Q times R, and multiplies them back the other way, R times Q. That is Q transposed A Q, an orthogonal similarity, so the eigenvalues stay the same.
The rest of the narration is in the book's Companion.
More from Chapter 9
Interactive1:34LoRA: a Low-Rank UpdateChapter 9
Preview1:48LDL Is Completing the SquareChapter 9
Preview1:25Superposition and Sparse CodingChapter 9
Preview1:47Rank-Revealing QR: Pick the Columns in a Good OrderChapter 9
Preview1:36Non-Negative Matrix Factorization: a Cone of PartsChapter 9
Preview1:33CUR: Rebuilding a Matrix from Its Own Rows and ColumnsChapter 9