Real roots of an nth order polynomial

Asked Dec 16 '14 at 08:32

Active Dec 16 '14 at 08:41

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Given an nth order polynomial, is there any algorithm that can calculate all the roots ? Is there any algorithm that can calculate ALL the roots of the equation ?

$$p(x)=p_nx^n+p_{n-1}x^{n-1}+\cdots+p_1x+p_0$$

All coefficients are real, and I'm only looking for real roots.

edited Dec 16 '14 at 08:41

msh210

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asked Dec 16 '14 at 08:32

kiranmathewkoshy

Are you looking for a numerical algorithm for approximate solutions or an algebraic algorithm for "closed form" solutions? – Joonas Ilmavirta Dec 16 '14 at 08:52
Mark McClure's answer here deserves some more upvotes. He beautifully summarizes a recent paper, "How to find all roots of complex polynomials by Newton's method", by Hubbard, Schliecher, and Sutherland, that does just what you want: "Not only is there a method but, due to the stability of the fixed points under iteration of the Newton's method function, there is a very good method." – MJD Dec 16 '14 at 09:00
@JoonasIlmavirta Approximations are just fine. – kiranmathewkoshy Dec 16 '14 at 09:15
@MJD From what I managed to understand, it does not give any assurance that the roots can be found in linear time. If any two of the roots are too close, I think it would take a long time to finish selecting the seeds – kiranmathewkoshy Dec 16 '14 at 09:24
I believe you are mistaken. See the section on page 5 that begins "concerning the number of iterations...". – MJD Dec 16 '14 at 09:28
@MJD that solves it, thanks :) – kiranmathewkoshy Dec 16 '14 at 09:33

Real roots of an nth order polynomial

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