Fast Multipole-Based Preconditioner for Sparse Iterative Solvers

Abstract

Among optimal hierarchical algorithms for the computational solution of elliptic problems, the Fast Multipole Method (FMM) stands out for its adaptability to emerging architectures, having high arithmetic intensity, tunable accuracy, and relaxed global synchronization requirements. We demonstrate that, beyond its traditional use as a solver in problems for which explicit free-space kernel representations are available, the FMM has applicability as a preconditioner in finite domain elliptic boundary value problems, by equipping it with boundary integral capability for finite boundaries and by wrapping it in a Krylov method for extensibility to more general operators. Compared with multilevel methods, it is capable of comparable algebraic convergence rates down to the truncation error of the discretized PDE, and it has superior multicore and distributed memory scalability properties on commodity architecture supercomputers.