# Finding the all roots of a polynomial by using Newton-Raphson method.

Is there a general formulation for finding all roots of a polynomial, especially the complex ones, by using the Newton-Raphson Method?

• The Newton-Raphson method converges rapidly to an isolated root of an equation or system of equations involving smooth functions once we have an approximation close enough to that root. Unfortunately these "basins of attraction" often have a fractal pattern, so making a broad generalization about how to be sure you are close enough is impossible. See the discussion here on Julia sets. – hardmath Oct 30 '14 at 15:08
• There is also a difficulty in knowing when a root has multiplicity greater than one, or when two roots that have multiplicity one happen to lie closely together. – hardmath Oct 30 '14 at 15:10
• Do you want (all) complex roots of polynomials in one variable? – user_of_math Oct 30 '14 at 15:34
• yes, I want this – E.H.E Oct 30 '14 at 15:35
• @hardmath The boundaries of the basins have a fractal structure but the basins themselves are open sets and extend out to infinity in a uniform way, thus it is possible to pick a set of initial seeds to ensure that you capture all the roots. Furthermore, the multiplicity of each root is reflected in the rate of convergence to the root - though, you are right that this is difficult to detect for large multiplicity. The details are all contained in the paper linked in my answer. – Mark McClure Oct 30 '14 at 18:13

Yes, there is such a method! See the aptly named "How to find all roots of complex polynomials by Newton's method", by Hubbard, Schliecher, and Sutherland.

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. Indeed, the authors point out that they were led to this topic in their study of invariant measures of the Henon mapping and, in that context had a genuine need to find roots of polynomials whose degree was several thousand. Evidently, their method succeeded where established software tools failed.

The basic idea is to find a collection of initial seeds distributed in such a way that you are guaranteed that, for each root, there is at least one of the seeds that converges to that root. This set is quite large but you can quit when you've found all the roots. The multiplicity of the root can be determined by the rate of convergence.

I've included an implementation in Mathematica below called NewtonSolve. Here's an example:

NewtonSolve[(z^3 - 1) (z - I)^3, z,
ErrorTolerance -> 10^-20] // Chop
(* Out: {{2.34482*10^-8 + 1. I, 1}, {0. + 1. I, 3},
{-0.5 + 0.866025 I, 1}, {-0.5 - 0.866025 I, 1}}
*)


Note that the command returns a list of {root,multiplicity} pairs and that $i$ has been correctly identified as having multiplicity 3. Of course, there are polynomials that will mess up any root finder and I make no claims that this code is production quality - but it does illustrate the ideas.

Here's a picture that further illustrates what's going on with this example:

The large green dots are exactly the roots of the polynomial - each living inside its shaded basin of attraction. The fundamental observation in the paper is that each of these basins of attraction extends off to infinity. As a result, we can choose a large enough ring of initial seeds so that each basin of attraction contains one of the seeds. The ring for this particular polynomial (in fact, any polynomial of degree six with roots in the unit disk) is shown as the ring of black dots.

The function solves an allegedly difficult example proposed in the comments above, with correct multiplicity, in well under a second:

NewtonSolve[(z - 1)^50, z] // Timing
(* Out: {0.293804, {{1. + 0. I, 50}}} *)


Here's the code for NewtonSolve:

Options[NewtonSolve] = {
NormalizationFactor -> Automatic,
ErrorTolerance -> \$MachineEpsilon
};
NewtonSolve[poly_, var_,
opts___] := Module[
{p, z, nwt, cp, cpp,
mult, sameRootQ, newRootQ,
maxIters, rootsSoFar, initPoints,
numInitPoints, rmPair, normFactor,
tol},

normFactor = NormalizationFactor /. {opts} /.
Options[NewtonSolve];
tol = ErrorTolerance /. {opts} /.
Options[NewtonSolve];

coeffs = CoefficientList[poly, var];
deg = Length[coeffs] - 1;
If[normFactor === Automatic,
maxRootRadius = Max[Abs[Drop[coeffs, -1]/Last[coeffs]]] + 1,
p[z_] = poly /. var -> maxRootRadius*z;

cp = Compile[{{z, _Complex}}, p[z]];
cpp = Compile[{{z, _Complex}}, Evaluate[p'[z]]];
nwt = Compile[{{z, _Complex}},
Evaluate[z - p[z]/p'[z]]];
mult[z0_Complex] := If[nwt[z0] == z0, 1,
mult[FixedPointList[nwt, z0, 1000]]];
mult[orbit_List] := Module[{f, div, diffs},
f[x_] := If[x != 1.0, 1/(x - 1)];
div[{a_, b_}] := If[b != 0, a/b];
diffs = Abs[(#[[2]] - #[[1]]) & /@
Partition[Drop[orbit, -1], 2, 1]];
statisticalMode[Round[f /@ (div /@
Partition[diffs, 2, 1])] + 1  /. Round[_] -> 0]];
sameRootQ[z1_, z2_, 1] := If[Abs[cp[z1]] >= Abs[cp[z2]],
Abs[z1 - z2] <= Abs[3 cp[z1]/cpp[z1]],
Abs[z2 - z1] <= Abs[3 cp[z2]/cpp[z2]]];
sameRootQ[z1_, z2_, mm_ /; mm > 1] := Abs[z1 - z2] < 100 tol;
newRootQ[z_, mm_] := Module[{justRootsSoFar, flag},
flag = True;
justRootsSoFar = First /@ Flatten[rootsSoFar];
Scan[If[sameRootQ[#, z, mm], Return[flag = False]] &,
justRootsSoFar];
flag];
maxIters =
Ceiling[(Log[1 + Sqrt[2]] - Log[tol])/(
Log[deg] - Log[deg - 1])];
rootsSoFar = {};
numRootsSoFar = 0;
initPoints = N[S[deg]];
numInitPoints = Length[initPoints];

i = 0;
While[i++ < numInitPoints  && numRootsSoFar < deg,
orbit = NestWhileList[nwt, initPoints[[i]],
(Abs[cp[#1]] >= tol && #1 != #2) &, 2, maxIters];
nextRoot = Last[orbit];
If[(Abs[cp[nextRoot]] < tol || orbit[[-2]] == orbit[[-1]]),
m = mult[nextRoot];
If[m > 1,
nextRoot = FixedPoint[nwt, nextRoot, maxIters]];
If[newRootQ[nextRoot, m],
numRootsSoFar = numRootsSoFar + m;
rootsSoFar = {rootsSoFar, rmPair[nextRoot, m]}]]
];
Flatten[rootsSoFar] /. rmPair[r_, mm_] ->
] /; (PolynomialQ[poly, var] &&
NumericQ[poly /. var :> Random[]]);

statisticalMode[list_] :=
Module[{c, mc, ms},
c = {Length[#], First[#]} & /@ Split[Sort[list]];
If[Length[c] === 1, Return[c[[1, 2]]]];
mc = Max[First[Transpose[c]]];
If[mc === 1, Return[{}]];
ms = Cases[c, {mc , val_} -> val];
If[Length[ms] == 1, ms[[1]], ms];
ms[[1]]] /; VectorQ[list] && (Length[list] > 0);
statisticalMode[{}] = 1;

ring[r_, d_] := With[{n = Ceiling[8.32547 d Log[d]]},
Flatten[Transpose[Partition[Table[r Exp[2 Pi I j/n],
{j, 0, n - 1}], Ceiling[n/d], Ceiling[n/d], 1, {{}}]]]];
S[d_] := With[{R = 1 + Sqrt[2], s = Ceiling[0.26632 Log[d]]},
Flatten[Table[ring[R (1 - 1/d)^((2 \[Nu] - 1)/(4 s)), d],
{\[Nu], 1, s}]]];

• Nice answer! Didn't know of something like this for complex roots. – user_of_math Oct 30 '14 at 17:04
• @user_of_math Glad you like it! I added a little further explanation with a picture. – Mark McClure Oct 30 '14 at 17:19
• This is a great answer. Thanks! – MJD Oct 30 '14 at 19:01
• @MJD Thanks for the bounty! – Mark McClure Dec 27 '14 at 22:13

As has been pointed out, the Newton-Raphson, as well as most other such methods, converge to a single isolated root. There are, however, methods to find all roots of a polynomial.

One I know of, is creating the companion matrix, and then finding (numerically) that matrix's eigenvalues, which are precisely the roots of your polynomial.

If you use Matlab, this is precisely what the 'roots' routine does. From personal experience with that routine, it runs very fast for polynomial of both low and high degrees.

While in general the answer is no, there is the Weierstrass method, which is based on multi-dimensional Newton's method and attempts to find all complex roots. Much like Newton's method it's not guaranteed to succeed, and only works well when the roots are simple.

Weierstrass method is probably closest to what you are looking for.