English

On cluster points of alternating projections

Optimization and Control 2013-07-11 v1 Numerical Analysis

Abstract

Suppose that AA and BB are closed subsets of a Euclidean space such that ABA\cap B\neq\varnothing, and we aim to find a point in this intersection with the help of the sequences (an)\nnn(a_n)_\nnn and (bn)\nnn(b_n)_\nnn generated by the \emph{method of alternating projections}. It is well known that if AA and BB are convex, then (an)\nnn(a_n)_\nnn and (bn)\nnn(b_n)_\nnn converge to some point in ABA\cap B. The situation in the nonconvex case is much more delicate. In 1990, Combettes and Trussell presented a dichotomy result that guarantees either convergence to a point in the intersection or a nondegenerate compact continuum as the set of cluster points. In this note, we construct two sets in the Euclidean plane illustrating the continuum case. The sets AA and BB can be chosen as countably infinite unions of closed convex sets. In contrast, we also show that such behaviour is impossible for finite unions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1307.2712,
  title  = {On cluster points of alternating projections},
  author = {Heinz H. Bauschke and Dominikus Noll},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.2712},
  year   = {2013}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:48:49.264Z