ON THE ACCURACY OF THE LEAST SQUARES AND THE TOTAL LEAST SQUARES METHODS

Consider solving an overdetermined system of linear algebraic equations by both the least squares method (LS) and the total least squares method (TLS). Extensive published computational evidence shows that when the original system is consistent. one often obtains more accurate solutions by using the TLS method rather than the LS method. These numerical observations contrast with existing analytic perturbation theories for the LS and TLS methods which show that the upper bounds for the LS solution are always smaller than the corresponding upper bounds for the TLS solutions. In this paper we derive a new upper bound for the TLS solution and indicate when the TLS method can be more accurate than the LS method.Many applied problems in signal processing lead to overdetermined systems of linear equations where the matrix and right hand side are determined by the experimental observations (usually in the form of a lime series). It often happens that as the number of columns of the matrix becomes larger, the ra