Sensitivity analysis for the block Cholesky downdating problem

Some improved rigorous perturbation bounds with normwise perturbation for the block Cholesky downdating problem are first derived by combining the modified matrix-vector equation approach with the strategy for Lyapunov majorant function and the Banach fixed point theorem. Then, we investigate four distinct kinds of condition numbers, i.e. two normwise ones, and mixed and componentwise ones, for this problem, and present their explicit expressions. Furthermore, using the probabilistic spectral norm estimator and the small-sample statistical condition estimation method, we also consider the statistical estimation of these condition numbers and design two algorithms. The obtained results are illustrated by numerical examples.