Dear Forum,
Kindly disregard my earlier email: I have been having some issues computing the roots of polynomials using "RootsFloat" function of the "Float" package. Please consider the following example: gap> a := last; [ [ 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0 ], [ 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0 ], [ 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0 ], [ 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0 ], [ 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1 ], [ 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 ], [ 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 ], [ 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 ], [ 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 ], [ 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 ], [ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0 ], [ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0 ], [ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0 ], [ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0 ], [ 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1 ], [ 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1 ], [ 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0 ], [ 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0 ], [ 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1 ], [ 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0 ] ] gap> a = TransposedMat(a); true gap> LoadPackage("float"); Loading FLOAT 0.6.2 ... true gap> SetFloats(MPFR); gap> pol := CharacteristicPolynomial(a); x_1^20-40*x_1^18+610*x_1^16-8*x_1^15-4640*x_1^14+40*x_1^13+ 19475*x_1^12-560*x_1^11-46380*x_1^10+5560*x_1^9+61610*x_1 ^8-19600*x_1^7-42220*x_1^6+25784*x_1^5+8265*x_1^4-11560* x_1^3+3700*x_1^2-400*x_1 gap> coeff := CoefficientsOfUnivariatePolynomial(pol); [ 0, -400, 3700, -11560, 8265, 25784, -42220, -19600, 61610, 5560, -46380, -560, 19475, 40, -4640, -8, 610, 0, -40, 0, 1 ] gap> RootsFloat(coeff*1.0); [ .0e0, .381966e0, .381966e0, .618034e0+.218005e-7ⅈ, .618034e0-.218005e-7ⅈ, .618034e0+.807401e-7ⅈ, .618034e0-.807401e-7ⅈ, -.138197e1, .2e1, -.138197e1, -.161803e1, -.161803e1-.141802e-8ⅈ, .2e1, -.161803e1+.136277e-8ⅈ, -.161803e1, .261803e1, .261803e1, -.361803e1, -.361803e1, .4e1 ] Note that that the RootsFloat function is showing complex roots (eigenvalues) for the characteristic polynomial of a real symmetric matrix. It would greatly help of you could me what's going wrong here. Best regards, Kashyap -- Kashyap Rajeevsarathy Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal, Indore By-pass Road, Bhauri, Bhopal - 462066, Madhya Pradesh, India. Phone: +91-755-669-2364 Website: https://home.iiserb.ac.in/~kashyap _______________________________________________ Forum mailing list Forum@mail.gap-system.org http://mail.gap-system.org/mailman/listinfo/forum