Solving inverse eigenvalue problems by a projected Newton method

The inverse eigenvalue problem for symmetric matrices (IEP) can be formulated as a system of two matrix equations. For solving the system a variation of Newton's method is used which has been proposed by Fusco and Zecca [Calcolo XXIII (1986), pp. 285–303] for the simultaneous computation of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a given symmetric matrix. An iteration step of this method consists of a Newton step followed by an orthonormalization with the consequence that each iterate satisfies one of the given equations. The method is proved to convergence locally quadratically to regular solutions. The algorithm and some numerical examples are presented. In addition, it is shown that the so-called Method III proposed by Friedland, Nocedal, and Overton [SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 24 (1987), pp. 634–667] for solving IEP may be constructed similarly to the method presented here.