Spectral analysis of saddle–point matrices from optimization problems with elliptic PDE constraints

The main focus of this paper is the characterization and exploitation of the asymptotic spectrum of the saddle– point matrix sequences arising from the discretization of optimization problems constrained by elliptic partial differential equations. They uncover the existence of an hidden structure in these matrix sequences, namely, they show that these are indeed an example of Generalized Locally Toeplitz (GLT) sequences. They show that this enables a sharper characterization of the spectral properties of such sequences than the one that is available by using only the fact that they deal with saddle–point matrices. Finally, they exploit it to propose an optimal preconditioner strategy for the GMRES, and Flexible–GMRES methods.