Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-numerical-linear-algebra-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2025/1/b/iv/solution

No uniform absolute error bound of order follows. Take the Jordan block
Here and . The exact eigenvalues of are both zero, whereas
These are admissible outputs under a backward error guarantee of size , yet their forward errors are . This is the square-root splitting of a defective double eigenvalue. More generally, eigenvalue sensitivity depends on the matrix; backward stability alone does not control it. The singular value perturbation bound used in part (ii) has no equally uniform counterpart for the eigenvalues of arbitrary nonsymmetric matrices.

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