# 7.5 Crout’s Method for Symmetric Matrices

If A is a symmetric n × n matrix, Algorithm 12 computes – one column at a time – the lower triangular matrix L that results from a Crout decomposition. The lower triangular portion of A is overwritten by L.

Algorithm 12: Crout’s Method - Symmetric Implementation
 for $j=1,\cdots,n$ for $i=1,\cdots,j-1$ $w_{i}=\displaystyle\frac{a_{ji}}{a_{ii}}$ for $i=j,\cdots,n$ $\alpha=a_{ij}$ for $p=1,\cdots,j-1$ $\alpha=\alpha-a_{ip}w_{p}$ $a_{ij}=\alpha$

The algorithm uses a working vector w of length n to construct the relevant portion of column j from U at each stage of the factorization. Elements from U are derived using Equation 79.

If the lower triangular portion of A is stored in a linear array, Algorithm 13 results in the same factorization (assuming zero based subscripting). The algorithm overwrites A with L.

Algorithm 13: Crout’s Method - Symmetric, Array Based
 for $j=0,\cdots,n-1$ for $i=0,\cdots,j-1$ $\mathbf{w}\text{[j]}=\displaystyle\frac{\mathbf{a}\text{[jn-j(j+1)/2+i]}}{% \mathbf{a}\text{[jn-j(j+1)/2+j]}}$ for $i=j,\cdots,n-1$ $\alpha=\mathbf{a}\text{[i(i+1)/2+j]}$ for $p=1,\cdots,i-1$ $\alpha=\alpha$ - $\mathbf{a}$[i(i+1)/2+p] $\cdot$ $\mathbf{w}$[p] $\mathbf{a}$[i(i+1)/2+j] = $\alpha$

For the general implementation of Crout’s method, see Section 4.3.