Numerical and Symbolical Methods Computing the Greatest Common Divisor of Several Polynomials

The computation of the Greatest Common Divisor (GCD) of a set of polynomials is an important issue in computational mathematics and it is linked to Control Theory very strong. In this paper we present different matrix-based methods, which are developed for the efficient computation of the GCD of several polynomials. Some of these methods are naturally developed for dealing with numerical inaccuracies in the input data and produce meaningful approximate results. Therefore, we describe and compare numerically and symbolically methods such as the ERES, the Matrix Pencil and other resultant type methods, with respect to their complexity and effectiveness. The combination of numerical and symbolic operations suggests a new approach in software mathematical computations denoted as hybrid computations. This combination offers great advantages, especially when we are interested in finding approximate solutions. Finally the notion of approximate GCD is discussed and a useful criterion estimating the strength of a given approximate GCD is also developed.