A general class of optimal eighth-order derivative free methods for nonlinear equations (Q2309767)

This manuscript deals with derivative-free iterative methods without memory for solving nonlinear equations \(f(x)=0\), where \(f\) is a scalar real function, \(f: I \subseteq \mathbb{R} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\). The authors present a new scheme in a general way, which is capable to produce further new optimal eighth-order derivative-free scheme from each optimal fourth-order derivative-free scheme whose first step employs an Steffensen-type method. Starting from an optimal method of order four, whose first step is the Steffensen's scheme, the authors presents the following iterative method \begin{align*} y_k & = x_k-\dfrac{f(x_k)}{f[u_k,x_k]}, \ u_k=x_k + \beta f(x_k), \ \beta \in \mathbb{R}, \\ z_k & = \varphi_4(u_k,x_k,y_k),\\ x_{k+1} & = z_k-\dfrac{f(z_k)(u_k-x_k)(u_k-y_k)(x_k-y_k)}{f[y_k,z_k](u_k-x_k)(u_k-z_k)(x_k-z_k)-A(y_k-z_k)}, \ \ k=0,1,\ldots, \end{align*} where \(A=f[x_k,z_k](u_k-y_k)(u_k-z_k)-f[u_k,z_k](x_k-y_k)(x_k-z_k)\) and \(\beta\) is a real parameter, \(\beta \neq 0\). Under standard conditions on the function \(f\), imposing order four for the function \(\varphi_4\) and an initial estimation \(x_0\) close enough of this solution, the authors prove the eighth-order convergence of the above scheme. By selecting different functions \(\varphi_4\), the authors construct several optimal eighth-order iterative schemes. For all of them, the basins of attraction corresponding to the roots of the polynomials \(p_1(z)=z^2-1\), \(p_2(z)=z^3-1\), \(p_3(z)=z^4-1\) and \(p_4(z)=z^5-1\) are painted. Finally, an example is presented to confirm the theoretical results and for comparing the proposed method with other optimal known ones.