On some ways of approximating inverses of banded matrices in connection with deriving preconditioners based on incomplete block factorizations (Q582807)

The author considers a unified approach of deriving band approximate inverses of band symmetric positive definite matrices. The decay behaviour of inverses of block-tridiagonal matrices is studied and a sharp decay rate estimate is proved by using a purely algebraic technique. Two algorithms for banded approximation of inverses of band matrices are derived basing on the complete \(LD^{-1}U\) factorization. These algorithms are used to compute approximate banded inverses in the so- called ``inverse-free'' incomplete block-factorization method for the construction of vectorizable preconditioners. The resulting preconditioners are compared in a numerical test for solving discretized stationary diffusion equations by the preconditioned conjugate gradient method.