Implementation and investigation of iterative solvers in the Discrete Sources Method

The implementation of iterative methods as solvers for the Discrete Sources Method (DSM) is presented. In this method, light scattering computation linear systems with dense and relative small matrices are generated. The linear systems are traditionally solved using the QR-decomposition method. For large particles or particles with extreme geometries even this commonly stable solver can fail. In these cases, we expect that iterative methods can provide a satisfying solution nevertheless.We will present our investigation in two consecutive papers. Here, we study four different iterative solvers (RGMRES, BiCGStab, BiCGStab(l), and MinRes) considering the performance and the accuracy for typical light scattering problems. Using these iterative methods we increased the quality of a solution, especially for oblate spheroids with a higher aspect ratio. Preconditioning technique is considered in the following paper.

Research highlights► Iterative methods were investigated for the least-squares problem in the DSM method. ► The range of applicability of DSM is extended to larger and more complex particles. ► The MinRes method shows the best behaviour among considered iterative methods. ► Preconditioning rapidly accelerates DSM in the beginning of the iterative process.