GOLDENMIN

Name

goldenMin

Purpose

This function finds a (local) minimum of a function, given three
points which bracket this minimum. The routine is lifted from the
routine 'golden' from Numerical Recipes

Calling Sequence

result = goldenMin(func, xa, xb, xc, [tol = tol, /verbose, _extra =
extra])

Inputs

func: The string name of a function to minimize. This function must
be of the form y = f(x). It must return a scalar.
xa: The first of three points bracketing the minimum
xb: The second point. f(xb) must be < than both f(xa) and f(xc),
and must lie between xa and xc
xc: The final point bracketing the minimum

Keyword Parameters

tol: The desired fractional precision of the minimum
coordinate. Defaults to .001 if absent.
VERBOSE: Print extra information
_extra: Any extra keywords will be passed to FUNC

Outputs

The value x for which f(x) is a mimum in the range [xa, xb].

Modification History

Written by: Chris Beaumont, Feb 2009
Added _extra keyword. cnb. June 2009