# Invertable operators¶

A common problem in physics models is solve a matrix equation of the form

$\underline{\underline{A}} \cdot \underline{x} = \underline{b}$

for the unknown $$\underline{x}$$. Here $$\underline{\underline{A}}$$ represents some differential operator subject to boundary conditions. A specific example is the set of Laplacian operators described in Laplacian inversion.

Whilst specific tools are provided to deal with Laplacian and parallel Helmholtz like equations these do not capture all possible systems and are typically implemented (at least partially) independently of the finite difference representation of the forward operators provided by the rest of BOUT++. To address this a class InvertableOperator has been implemented that allows the user to define a generic differential operator and provides a simple (for the user) method to invert the operator to find $$\underline{x}$$. This class currently relies on PETSc to provide the inversion functionality and hence is not available when configuring without PETSc support. It is available in the namespace bout::inversion.

There is an example in examples/invertable_operator that uses the class to solve a simple Laplacian operator and compares to the specific Laplacian inversion solvers.

The InvertableOperator class is templated on the field type of the operator (essentially defining the domain over which the problem exists). To define the operator that the InvertableOperator instances represents one should use the InvertableOperator::setOperatorFunction method. This takes a function of signature std::function<T(const T&)>. This can be a std::function, compatible function pointer, lambda or a functor. The last of these allows more complicated functions that use a local context. For example the following code snippet demonstrates a functor that stores several auxilliary Field3D variables used in the operator() call:

struct myLaplacian {
Field3D D = 1.0, C = 1.0, A = 0.0;

// Drop C term for now
Field3D operator()(const Field3D &input) {
TRACE("myLaplacian::operator()");
Timer timer("invertable_operator_operate");
Field3D result = A * input + D * Delp2(input);

// Ensure boundary points are set appropriately as given by the input field.
result.setBoundaryTo(input);

return result;
};
};


A more complete example is

struct myLaplacian {
Field3D D = 1.0, C = 1.0, A = 0.0;

// Drop C term for now
Field3D operator()(const Field3D &input) {
TRACE("myLaplacian::operator()");
Timer timer("invertable_operator_operate");
Field3D result = A * input + D * Delp2(input);

// Ensure boundary points are set appropriately as given by the input field.
result.setBoundaryTo(input);

return result;
};
};

bout::inversion::InveratbleOperator<Field3D> solver;
myLaplacian laplacianOperator;
laplacianOperator.A = 1.0;
laplacianOperator.B = 2.0;

// Set the function defining the operator
solver.setOperatorFunction(laplacianOperator);

// Perform initial setup
solver.setup();

// Now invert the operator for a given right hand side.
Field3D rhs = 3.0*x;
auto solution = solver.invert(rhs);


The PETSc backend solver is an iterative solver. It can be controlled through the usual PETSc command line options. Note we define the options prefix here to be -invertable, so instead of -ksp_type one would use -invertable_ksp_type for example.

By default the solver caches the result to use as the initial guess for the next call to invert. There is an overload of invert that takes a second field, which is used to set the initial guess to use in that call.

The routine setOperatorFunction takes the function by value, and hence subsequent changes to the functor will not be reflected in the operator without a further call to setOperatorFunction. For example:

using bout::inversion;
InvertableOperator<Field3D> solver;
myLaplacian laplacianOperator;
laplacianOperator.A = 1.0;
laplacianOperator.B = 2.0;

// Set the function defining the operator
solver.setOperatorFunction(laplacianOperator);

// Perform initial setup
solver.setup();

// This does not change the operator represented by
// solver yet.
laplacianOperator.B = -1.0;

// This call updates the function used by solver
// and hence the operator is update to reflect the state
// of laplacianOperator.
solver.setOperatorFunction(laplacianOperator);


The class provides a reportTime method that reports the time spent in various parts of the class. Note that by including Timer timer("invertable_operator_operate"); in the function representing the operator reportTime will include the time spent actually applying the operator.

The class provides both apply and operator() methods that can be used to apply the operator to a field. For example the following should be equivalent to no operation:

// Here result should == input, at least in the main simulation domain
auto result = solver(solver.invert(input));


The class provides a verify method that checks that applying the operator to the calculated inverse returns the input field within some tolerance.

It’s also possible to register a function to use as a preconditioner. By default this is the same as the full operator function.