## Subsection4.3.3Case 2: General case

Now we show how to use the SVD to find $\hat x$ that satisfies

\begin{equation*} \| b - A \hat x \|_2 = \min_x \| b - A x \|_2, \end{equation*}

where $\rank(A) = r \text{,}$ with no assumptions about the relative size of $m$ and $n \text{.}$ In our discussion, we let $A = U_L \Sigma_{TL} V_L^H$ equal its Reduced SVD and

\begin{equation*} A = \left( \begin{array}{c | c} U_L \amp U_R \end{array} \right) \left( \begin{array}{c | c} \Sigma_{TL} \amp 0 \\ \hline 0 \amp 0 \end{array} \right) \left( \begin{array}{c | c} V_L \amp V_R \end{array} \right)^H \end{equation*}

its SVD.

The first observation is, once more, that an $\hat x$ that minimizes satisfies

\begin{equation*} A \hat x = \hat b, \end{equation*}

where $\hat b = U_L U_L^H b \text{,}$ the orthogonal projection of $b$ onto the column space of $A \text{.}$ Notice our use of "an $\hat x$" since the solution won't be unique if $r \lt m$ and hence the null space of $A$ is not trivial. Substituting in the SVD this means that

\begin{equation*} \left( \begin{array}{c | c} U_L \amp U_R \end{array} \right) \left( \begin{array}{c | c} \Sigma_{TL} \amp 0 \\ \hline 0 \amp 0 \end{array} \right) \left( \begin{array}{c | c} V_L \amp V_R \end{array} \right)^H \hat x = U_L U_L^H b. \end{equation*}

Multiplying both sides by $U_L^H$ yields

\begin{equation*} \left( \begin{array}{c | c} I \amp 0 \end{array} \right) \left( \begin{array}{c | c} \Sigma_{TL} \amp 0 \\ \hline 0 \amp 0 \end{array} \right) \left( \begin{array}{c | c} V_L \amp V_R \end{array} \right)^H \hat x = U_L^H b \end{equation*}

or, equivalently,

$$\Sigma_{TL} V_L^H \hat x = U_L^H b. \label{chapter04-LLS-general-1}\tag{4.3.1}$$

Any solution to this can be written as the sum of a vector in the row space of $A$ with a vector in the null space of $A \text{:}$

\begin{equation*} \hat x = V z = \left( \begin{array}{c | c } V_L \amp V_R \end{array} \right) \left( \begin{array}{c}{z_T}\\ \hline {z_B} \end{array}\right) = \begin{array}[t]{c} \underbrace{ V_L z_T} \\ x_r \end{array} + \begin{array}[t]{c} \underbrace{ V_R z_B} \\ x_n \end{array}. \end{equation*}

Substituting this into (4.3.1) we get

\begin{equation*} \Sigma_{TL} V_L^H ( V_L z_T + V_R z_B ) = U_L^H b , \end{equation*}

which leaves us with

\begin{equation*} \Sigma_{TL} z_T = U_L^H b . \end{equation*}

Thus, the solution in the row space is given by

\begin{equation*} x_r = V_L z_T = V_L \Sigma_{TL}^{-1} U_L^H b \end{equation*}

and the general solution is given by

\begin{equation*} \hat x = V_L \Sigma_{TL}^{-1} U_L^H b + V_R z_B, \end{equation*}

where $z_B$ is any vector in $\C^{n-r} \text{.}$ This reasoning is captured in Figure 4.3.3.1.

###### Homework4.3.3.1.

Reason that

\begin{equation*} \hat x = V_L \Sigma_{TL}^{-1} U_L^H b \end{equation*}

is the solution to the LLS problem with minimal length (2-norm). In other words, if $x^\star$ satisfies

\begin{equation*} \| b - A x^\star \|_2 = \min_x \| b - A x \|_2 \end{equation*}

then $\| \hat x \|_2 \leq \| x^\star \|_2 \text{.}$

Solution

The important insight is that

\begin{equation*} x^\star = \begin{array}[t]{c} \underbrace{V_L \Sigma_{TL}^{-1} U_L^H b}\\ \hat x \end{array} + V_R z_B \end{equation*}

and that

are orthogonal to each other (since $V_L^H V_R = 0$). If $u^H v = 0$ then $\| u + v \|_2^2 = \| u \|_2^2 + \| v \|_2^2 \text{.}$ Hence
and hence $\| \hat x \|_2 \leq \| x^\star \|_2 \text{.}$