Achieving Optimal Order in a Novel Family of Numerical Methods: Insights from Convergence and Dynamical Analysis Results

In this manuscript, we introduce a novel parametric family of multistep iterative methods designed to solve nonlinear equations. This family is derived from a damped Newton’s scheme but includes an additional Newton step with a weight function and a “frozen” derivative, that is, the same derivative than in the previous step. Initially, we develop a quad-parametric class with a first-order convergence rate. Subsequently, by restricting one of its parameters, we accelerate the convergence to achieve a third-order uni-parametric family. We thoroughly investigate the convergence properties of this final class of iterative methods, assess its stability through dynamical tools, and evaluate its performance on a set of test problems. We conclude that there exists one optimal fourth-order member of this class, in the sense of Kung–Traub’s conjecture. Our analysis includes stability surfaces and dynamical planes, revealing the intricate nature of this family. Notably, our exploration of stability surfaces enables the identification of specific family members suitable for scalar functions with a challenging convergence behavior, as they may exhibit periodical orbits and fixed points with attracting behavior in their corresponding dynamical planes. Furthermore, our dynamical study finds members of the family of iterative methods with exceptional stability. This property allows us to converge to the solution of practical problem-solving applications even from initial estimations very far from the solution. We confirm our findings with various numerical tests, demonstrating the efficiency and reliability of the presented family of iterative methods.