General local convergence theory for a class of iterative processes and its applications to Newton’s method

General local convergence theorems with order of convergence r≥1r≥1 are provided for iterative processes of the type xn+1=Txnxn+1=Txn, where T:D⊂X→XT:D⊂X→X is an iteration function in a metric space XX. The new local convergence theory is applied to Newton iteration for simple zeros of nonlinear operators in Banach spaces as well as to Schröder iteration for multiple zeros of polynomials and analytic functions. The theory is also applied to establish a general theorem for the uniqueness ball of nonlinear equations in Banach spaces. The new results extend and improve some results of [K. Dočev, Über Newtonsche Iterationen, C. R. Acad. Bulg. Sci. 36 (1962) 695–701; J.F. Traub, H. Woźniakowski, Convergence and complexity of Newton iteration for operator equations, J. Assoc. Comput. Mach. 26 (1979) 250–258; S. Smale, Newton’s method estimates from data at one point, in: R.E. Ewing, K.E. Gross, C.F. Martin (Eds.), The Merging of Disciplines: New Direction in Pure, Applied, and Computational Mathematics, Springer, New York, 1986, pp. 185–196; P. Tilli, Convergence conditions of some methods for the simultaneous computation of polynomial zeros, Calcolo 35 (1998) 3–15; X.H. Wang, Convergence of Newton’s method and uniqueness of the solution of equations in Banach space, IMA J. Numer. Anal. 20 (2000) 123–134; I.K. Argyros, J.M. Gutiérrez, A unified approach for enlarging the radius of convergence for Newton’s method and applications, Nonlinear Funct. Anal. Appl. 10 (2005) 555–563; M. Giusti, G. Lecerf, B. Salvy, J.-C. Yakoubsohn, Location and approximation of clusters of zeros of analytic functions, Found. Comput. Math. 5 (3) (2005) 257–311], and others.