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Problem:

When I multiply together two sparse matrices that should give back the 0 matrix, where at least one element among the two is complex and at least one is not an exact number, the kernel crashes unexpectedly with no messages generated.

4 workarounds are given at the bottom.

Minimal working example:

test1 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[{1., 0}]]
test2 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[{0, I}]]
test1.test2 (* Crashes kernel with no messages generated *)

Note that at least one element must be complex, at least one must not be an exact number and the final result must have no non-zero elements.

Can anyone reproduce this behavior? Even better, anyone have a workaround? This problem shows up for me deep inside a complex differential equation of $64\times64$ very sparse matrices. Using non-sparse operations gives a $\sim 20$x slowdown.

I'll report to Wolfram as well, thanks!

System:

Version: 12.0.0 for Linux x86 (64-bit) (April 7, 2019). See comments for some other systems affected by this.

Workarounds:

For those who stumble upon this in the future:

test1 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[SetPrecision[{1., 0}, $MachinePrecision]]]
test2 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[{0, I}]]
test1.test2

Gives the desired result of an empty SparseArray. Other workarounds include:

test1 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[{1., 0}]]
test2 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[{0, I}]]
test1.test2

Avoids the crash but gives 2 "specified elements" in the result so it's less sparse than desired.

test1 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[{1., 0} + $MinMachineNumber]]
test2 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[{0, I}]]
test1.test2

Also avoids the crash but does give 1 non-zero element in the result so is technically wrong, albeit by the tiniest possible amount.

test1 = DiagonalMatrix[{1., 0}, 0, 2, SparseArray]; 
test2 = DiagonalMatrix[{0, I}, 0, 2, SparseArray];
test1.test2

Also avoids the crash and also gives 2 "specified elements" in the result.

Improve this question
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  • 1
    $\begingroup$ It also crashes for me on Windows 10 v12.1. $\endgroup$
    – flinty
    Commented May 27, 2020 at 22:07
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    $\begingroup$ macos version 12.0 crashes, too. Weird. $\endgroup$
    – Henrik Schumacher
    Commented May 27, 2020 at 22:39
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    $\begingroup$ Please report this to support. $\endgroup$
    – Henrik Schumacher
    Commented May 27, 2020 at 23:04
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    $\begingroup$ If you're using DiagonalMatrix[], perhaps just have it generate a SparseArray[] directly: test1 = DiagonalMatrix[{1., 0}, 0, 2, SparseArray]; test2 = DiagonalMatrix[{0, I}, 0, 2, SparseArray];. $\endgroup$
    – J. M.'s missing motivation ♦
    Commented May 28, 2020 at 1:14
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    $\begingroup$ I'll ensure this is reported internally. $\endgroup$
    – ktm
    Commented May 28, 2020 at 15:09

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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This seemed to work for me...

test1 = DiagonalMatrix[SparseArray[{1. + 0. I, 0. I}]];
test2 = DiagonalMatrix[SparseArray[{0. I, 1. I}]];
test1.test2
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    $\begingroup$ This is better. It still works for me even if I leave the exact {1., 0} and {0, I} in place. $\endgroup$
    – flinty
    Commented May 27, 2020 at 22:45
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Using N[...] didn't work for me either. If you can tolerate the really tiny error on the order of $10^{-308}$ then here's a workaround which adds the $MinMachineNumber to the first matrix elements:

test1 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[{1., 0} + $MinMachineNumber]]
test2 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[{0, I}]]
test1.test2
Improve this answer
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3
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This seems to work, and returns an empty SparseArray as desired

test1 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[SetPrecision[{1., 0}, $MachinePrecision]]]
test2 = SparseArray[DiagonalMatrix[{0, I}]]
test1.test2
Improve this answer
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