The 3-term Lanczos process leads, for a symmetric matrix, to bases for Krylov subspaces of increasing dimension. The Lanczos basis, together with the recurrence coefficients, can be used for the solution of symmetric indefinite linear systems, by solving the reduced system in one way or another. This leads to well-known methods: MINRES, GMRES, and SYMMLQ. We will discuss in what way and to what extent these approaches differ in their sensitivity to rounding errors. In our analysis we will assume that the Lanczos basis is generated in exactly the same way for the different methods, and we will not consider the errors in the Lanczos process itself. We will show that the method of solution may lead, under certain circumstances, to large additional errors, that are not corrected by continuing the iteration process. Our findings are supported and illustrated by numerical examples. 1 Introduction We will consider iterative methods for the construction of approximate solutions, starting with...

The 3-term Lanczos process leads, for a symmetric matrix, to bases for Krylov subspaces of increasing dimension. The Lanczos basis, together with the recurrence coefficients, can be used for the solution of linear systems, by solving the reduced system in one way or another. This leads to well-known methods: MINRES (GMRES), CG, CR, and SYMMLQ. We will discuss in what way and to what extent the various approaches are sensitive to rounding errors. In our analysis we will assume that the Lanczos basis is generated in exactly the same way for the different methods (except CR), and we will not consider the errors in the Lanczos process itself. These errors may lead to large perturbations with respect to the exact process, but convergence takes still place. Our attention is focussed to what happens in the solution phase. We will show that the way of solution may lead, under circumstances, to large additional errors, that are not corrected by continuing the iteration process. Our findings are...