Updating preconditioners for modified least squares problems

In this paper, we analyze how to update incomplete Cholesky preconditioners to solve least squares problems using iterative methods when the set of linear relations is updated with some new information, a new variable is added or, contrarily, some information or variable is removed from the set. Our proposed method computes a low-rank update of the preconditioner using a bordering method which is inexpensive compared with the cost of computing a new preconditioner. Moreover, the numerical experiments presented show that this strategy gives, in many cases, a better preconditioner than other choices, including the computation of a new preconditioner from scratch or reusing an existing one.