Iterative equation solver in Python In order to solve a equation where the left hand side appears under an integral on the right hand side:

$$
B(p^2) = C\int_0^{p^2}f_1\left(B(q^2),q^2\right)\mathrm{d}q^2 + C\int_{p^2}^{\Lambda^2} f_2\left(B(q^2),q^2\right)\mathrm{d}q^2
$$

I have written the following code to do solve this equation iteratively:

import numpy as np
import time

def solver(alpha = 2.):

    L2 = 1 # UV Cut-off
    N = 1000 # Number of grid points
    maxIter = 100 # Maximum no. of iterations

    # The grid on which the function is evaluated    
    p2grid = np.logspace(-10, 0, N, base=10)
    dq = np.array([0] + [p2grid[i+1]-p2grid[i] for i in range(len(p2grid)-1)])

    Bgrid = np.ones(N)
    Bgrid_new = np.empty(N) # Buffer variable for new values of B

    C = alpha / (4*np.pi)

    for j in range(maxIter):

        for i, p2 in enumerate(p2grid):           
            # If lower and upper limit of an integral are the same, set to 0           
            if i &gt; 0:       
                n = i + 1
                int1 = np.add.reduce((p2grid[0:n] * 3*Bgrid[0:n] /\
                        (p2 * (p2grid[0:n] + Bgrid[0:n]**2))) * dq[0:n])
            else:
                int1 = 0

            if i &lt; N - 1:
                int2 = np.add.reduce((3*Bgrid[i:] /
                            (p2grid[i:] + Bgrid[i:]**2)) * dq[i:])
            else:
                int2 = 0                   
            # Write new values to buffer variable
            Bgrid_new[i] = C * (int1 + int2)

        # Calculate relative error (take the maximum)
        maxError = np.max(np.abs((Bgrid - Bgrid_new)/Bgrid_new))
        # Copy values from buffer to working variable
        Bgrid = np.copy(Bgrid_new)
        # If the change in the last iteration was small enough, stop
        if (maxError &lt; 10**-4):
            break

    print "Finished in", j+1, "iterations, relative error:", maxError   
    return p2grid, Bgrid/np.sqrt(L2)

t0 = time.clock()
p2grid, Bgrid = solver()
print "Time:", time.clock() - t0, " seconds"


I am wondering if there a speedups possible:


I am using np.add.reduce instead of np.sum, which is about 0.2 secs faster on my system
I tried to move the code where int1 and int2 are calculated to a separate function, no improvement here
Using [... for enumerate(p2grid)] instead of the for-loop seems not be faster either
The profiler says almost all time is still spent in the reduce method. 


I can't see how this code can be optimized further (as most time is spent in a function of the NumPy lib), but I can't believe I wrote the most efficient code either.

If there are no optimizations possible at code level, is there anything else I should try or look into, like different interpreters or something like that?
You don't need line continuation characters inside brackets.

After splitting up your reduce lines, line_profiler says most of your time is actually in

(p2grid[0:n] * 3*Bgrid[0:n] / (p2 * (p2grid[0:n] + Bgrid[0:n]**2))) * dq[0:n]


and

(3*Bgrid[i:] / (p2grid[i:] + Bgrid[i:]**2)) * dq[i:]


Extracting those outside of the loop and pulling a division out of the sum:

t2 = dq * 3 * Bgrid / (p2grid + Bgrid**2)
t1 = t2 * p2grid

for i, p2 in enumerate(p2grid):           
    # If lower and upper limit of an integral are the same, set to 0           
    if i &gt; 0:       
        int1 = np.add.reduce(t1[:i+1]) / p2
    else:
        int1 = 0

    if i &lt; N - 1:
        int2 = np.add.reduce(t2[i:])
    else:
        int2 = 0                   

    # Write new values to buffer variable
    Bgrid_new[i] = C * (int1 + int2)


gives a good speed boost.

You can also simplify the logic to:

val = 0

if i &gt; 0:       
    val = np.add.reduce(t1[:i+1]) / p2

if i &lt; N - 1:
    val += np.add.reduce(t2[i:])

Bgrid_new[i] = C * val


But then note you have a sliding summation; you can do this beforehand with numpy.add.accumulate.

    t2 = dq * 3 * Bgrid / (p2grid + Bgrid**2)
    t1 = t2 * p2grid

    val1_accumulate = np.add.accumulate(t1)
    val2_accumulate = np.add.accumulate(t2[::-1])[::-1]

    for i, p2 in enumerate(p2grid):           
        # If lower and upper limit of an integral are the same, set to 0           
        val = 0

        if i &gt; 0:
            val = val1_accumulate[i] / p2

        if i &lt; N - 1:
            val += val2_accumulate[i]

        # Write new values to buffer variable
        Bgrid_new[i] = C * val


This is much faster.

Now this loop can probably be vectorized.

Bgrid_new = np.zeros_like(Bgrid)
Bgrid_new[+1:] += val1_accumulate[+1:] / p2grid[+1:]
Bgrid_new[:-1] += val2_accumulate[:-1]
Bgrid_new *= C


All in all, this seems to be a factor of 300-400 faster. You can do other optimizations like

dq = np.zeros_like(p2grid)
dq[1:] = np.diff(p2grid)


and removing the call to copy, but it should already be fast enough.

Then you should focus on cleaning up the code. Spacing is important as are appropriate variable names (snake_case and not-single-letter names). The trick is to make comments redundant:

num_grid_points = 1000 # Number of grid points


Note how the comment can now be removed.

Here's an attempt at a cleaner version. I've also added a couple more speed improvements, because I'm a hopeless addict:

def solver(alpha = 2.):
    uv_cutoff = 1
    num_grid_points = 1000
    max_iterations = 100

    # The grid on which the function is evaluated    
    p2_grid = np.logspace(-10, 0, num_grid_points, base=10)

    dq = np.empty_like(p2_grid)
    dq[0], dq[1:] = 0, np.diff(p2_grid)

    b_grid = np.ones(num_grid_points)

    c = alpha / (4 * np.pi)

    for iteration_num in range(max_iterations):
        t2 = 3 * dq * b_grid / (p2_grid + b_grid*b_grid)
        t1 = t2 * p2_grid

        t1_cumsum = np.add.accumulate(t1)
        t2_cumsum = np.add.accumulate(t2[::-1])[::-1]
        t1_cumsum[0] = t2_cumsum[-1] = 0

        b_grid_new = c * (t1_cumsum / p2_grid + t2_cumsum)

        # Calculate relative error (take the maximum)
        max_error = np.max(np.abs((b_grid - b_grid_new) / b_grid_new))

        b_grid = b_grid_new

        if max_error &lt; 10**-4:
            break

    print "Finished in", iteration_num + 1, "iterations, relative error:", max_error   
    return p2_grid, b_grid / np.sqrt(uv_cutoff)


I'm not really sure how to rename these, though, because I'm not familiar with the maths.