Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / Discrete mathematics, probability and continuous mathematics / 5 / c / ii / Solution

Convexity of the components of a vector field is not the decisive criterion for a root-finding problem. Neither method becomes globally reliable merely because each component is convex.

Prefer the Newton root-finding iteration when the Jacobian matrix is available accurately and at reasonable cost. Solve $J({\mathbf{x}}_k){\mathbf{s}}_k=-\mathbf{f}({\mathbf{x}}_k)$ rather than explicitly forming an inverse matrix. Near a root with a nonsingular Jacobian matrix and a locally Lipschitz Jacobian matrix, the usual exact iteration has quadratic convergence.

Prefer Broyden's method when evaluating or differentiating the vector field makes a fresh Jacobian matrix expensive. It learns an approximate Jacobian matrix through secant updates using function differences. Under appropriate local regularity and initialization assumptions it has superlinear convergence, generally slower asymptotically than the quadratic convergence of exact Newton steps, but often with cheaper iterations.^[ref]

Dimension matters through storage and solves. A full dense Newton factorization costs order $d^3$ arithmetic operations; a dense Broyden approximation uses order $d^2$ storage, and maintained inverse or factorization updates can cost order $d^2$. A naive fresh dense solve can still cost order $d^3$. Sparsity can favour Newton, while very large $d$ can make either dense formulation unsuitable. Neither local rate guarantees convergence from an arbitrary starting point.