Higher order methods for nonlinear equations and their basins of attraction (Q515409)

Summary: In this paper, we present a family of fourth order iterative methods, which uses weight functions. This new family requires three function evaluations to get fourth order accuracy. By the Kung-Traub hypothesis this family of methods is optimal and has an efficiency index of 1.587. Furthermore, we extend one of the methods to sixth and twelfth order methods whose efficiency indices are 1.565 and 1.644, respectively. Some numerical examples are tested to demonstrate the performance of the proposed methods, which verifies the theoretical results. Further, we discuss the extraneous fixed points and basins of attraction for a few existing methods, such as Newton's method and the proposed family of fourth order methods. An application problem arising from Planck's radiation law is verified using our methods.