A non-conditional divergence criteria of Petrov-Galerkin method for bounded linear operator equation

Abstract: Petrov-Galerkin methods are always considered in numerical solutions of differential and integral equations $ Ax=b $. It is common to consider the convergence and error analysis when $ b \in \mathcal{R}(A) $ which make the equation solvable. However, the case when $ b \notin \mathcal{R}(A) $ is always ignored. In this paper, we consider the numerical behavior of Petrov-Galerkin methods when $ b \notin \mathcal{R}(A) $. It is a natural guess that when $ b \in \mathcal{R}(A) $, the corresponding approximate solution constructed by Petrov-Galerkin methods with arbitrary basis will diverge to infinity. We prove this conjecture for bounded linear operator equation with dense range $ \mathcal{R}(A) $ and give a more general divergence result for bounded linear operator equation with not necessarily dense range $ \mathcal{R}(A) $. Several applications show its power.