Generator

anisotropy-factors

One function in the grid2d library, called 7 times across 6 essays. Below: what it draws at its defaults, what it draws at every value an essay asks for, the 4 claims it put to the test while drawing them, and where it stands against the rule this site is named for.

At its defaults it draws smoothing factor against anisotropy, at ω = 0.667. Three curves of the smoothing factor against the anisotropy parameter on a logarithmic axis. One rises to one as the anisotropy grows; the other two coincide and stay near a third.

anisotropy-factors is one function in lib/figures/grid2d.js — two dimensions — where the galerkin identity stops being an identity. Everything below came out of it during this build, at arguments taken from the essays rather than invented for this page. A figure here is the figure a reader meets in an essay, and if the generator changes, this page changes with it.

At its defaults

Drawn even though every essay passes arguments — which on this site is every essay, at 100% of placements since the standard pass. A default nothing exercises is a trap for the next essay to call this with none, and this is the page where a default that has drifted from the figures around it becomes visible.

Smoothing factor against anisotropy, at ω = 0.667Three curves of the smoothing factor against the anisotropy parameter on a logarithmic axis. One rises to one as the anisotropy grows; the other two coincide and stay near a third.10⁻⁴10⁻³10⁻²10⁻¹100.250.50.751anisotropy εsmoothing factor μpoint + fully-line + fullpoint + semi-y⅓, the one-dimensional answertwo routes, three curvesgap between the repairs0scan against closed form1.1·10⁻¹⁶the dashed curve lies on the solid one beneath itone repair, written two ways

Three curves of the smoothing factor against the anisotropy parameter on a logarithmic axis. One rises to one as the anisotropy grows; the other two coincide and stay near a third.

omega: 0.6667

The arguments are the ones A direction the smoother cannot see passes. A value drawn at the generator's defaults instead would be a picture no essay asked for and no assertion has been run against.

Smoothing factor against anisotropy, at ω = 0.667Three curves of the smoothing factor against the anisotropy parameter on a logarithmic axis. One rises to one as the anisotropy grows; the other two coincide and stay near a third.10⁻⁴10⁻³10⁻²10⁻¹100.250.50.751anisotropy εsmoothing factor μpoint + fully-line + fullpoint + semi-y⅓, the one-dimensional answertwo routes, three curvesgap between the repairs2.2·10⁻¹⁶scan against closed form2.2·10⁻¹⁶the dashed curve lies on the solid one beneath itone repair, written two ways

Three curves of the smoothing factor against the anisotropy parameter on a logarithmic axis. One rises to one as the anisotropy grows; the other two coincide and stay near a third.

What it checked while drawing

Every figure above asserted its own claims on the way to being drawn, and a claim that failed would have failed the build rather than drawn a wrong picture. Those assertions used to leave no trace at all: a passing one returned true and the only evidence the figure had checked anything was that nothing crashed. The list below is what they actually said, collected by running this generator with an observer installed — not a description of what it is believed to check.

4 distinct claims across 2 sets of arguments, grouped below by shape — because most of them are one sentence with a different number in it, and how many separate times that sentence was put to the test is the informative part.

and every scanned value is its closed form

and near the best weight it is far worse

at the smallest ε the point smoother is the worse of the two at every weight

the two repairs have the same smoothing factor at every ε drawn

Against the rule

The rule does not apply to it. It factorises nothing, so there is no residual it could be withholding. That is worth stating rather than leaving blank: a site that reported the rule as satisfied by every generator would be counting mostly generators the rule never reached.

Across the library: the rule bites on 52 of 99 generators — 37 print a residual and 15 are exempt with a published reason; 47 factorise nothing. Read from lib/residual-rule.js, which is the same body the gate enforces from, and the gate's last check fails the build if this page and it disagree about any generator.

Where it is called

Changing this generator changes every figure on this list. That is what makes the list worth publishing rather than keeping in a check script.

Iterating, instead of factorising

A direction the smoother cannot see

Give the Laplacian a strong direction and multigrid stops working — from 0.2016 a cycle to 0.9565 — with every component unchanged and the condition number identical to twelve digits. The problem did not get harder. The link between the method's two halves broke.

Iterating, instead of factorising

A rate that is known in advance

On the model problem, Jacobi contracts by cos(π/(n+1)) per step, Gauss–Seidel by its square, and optimally relaxed SOR by a number given in closed form. Three rates, all known before anything runs, and all measurable against what runs.

Iterating, instead of factorising

Coarsening in one direction only

Leave the smoother alone and halve only the strong direction, and the smoothing factor is 0.3340 — identical to line relaxation's, at every anisotropy and every weight, to twelve digits. The convergence factors are then a factor of three apart, and at 45° both repairs fail outright.

Iterating, instead of factorising

Smoothing a whole line at once

Solve every grid line in the strong direction exactly rather than sweeping over it, and the smoothing factor goes from 0.9993 back to 0.3340 — which is the one-dimensional answer, on a problem that is not one-dimensional. The repair replaces one ε in the closed form by a one.

Two errors, and whose fault they are

The condition number is an amplifier

κ is usually introduced as a definition and then quoted. It is a measurement: perturb the input by a known amount, look at how much the output moves, and the largest ratio you can find is the number.

Iterating, instead of factorising

The error smoothing cannot reach

One weighted Jacobi sweep multiplies every mode of the error by a number, and the number is a sine. Half the modes are cut by three or better, and the other half come back at 0.999 — which is not a failure of the method but the fact the whole of multigrid is built on.

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