[1] L.T. Santos Nonlinear Systems and Fractals "Matematica Universitaria", 15, 102-116,1993 In this work we use computer graphic techniques to analyse the chaotic behaviour of some iterative methods for solving nonlinear systems of dimension 2. We show the convergence regions to illustrate the fractal geometry. [2] J.M. Martinez, L.T. Santos and S.A. Santos A Minimax Method with Application to the Initial Vector Coding Problem Technical Report - Imecc - UNICAMP, RP 60/93, 1993 Submitted to "Mathematics and Computers in Simulation" We consider the problem Minimize max { f_1(x), f_2(x), ..., f_m(x) } x \in S where f_1, ...,f_m : R^n -> R are (generally nonlinear) differentiable functions, S C R^n and n,m can be large. We introduce a new algorithm for solving this problem that can be implemented in rather modest computer environments. The new method is based on a fast one-dimensional newtonian procedure applied to the objective value of an auxiliary function. We report numerical experiments, which suggest that the new algorithm, combined with powerful strategy for minimization on spheres, can be an effective tool for solving initial vector coding problems. [3] L.T. Santos, B. Ursin and M. Tygel Waves series Expansions for Stratified Acoustic Media Technical Report - IMECC - UNICAMP, RP 33/94, 1994 The reflection or transmission transient response of a stack of plane homogeneous acoustic layers between two homogeneous acoustic half-spaces, due to a point source located in one half-space or within the layer stack, is exactly given by an infinite superposition of generalized waves. The main results concerning generalized waves in time domain are reviewed. In particular, a new derivation of the Cagniard-de Hoop expressions are obtained from the transient Sommerfeld point-source representation in a direct manner. The results obtained are then used to compute synthetic seismograms in a very accurate way. Finally, asymptotic results for times close to the main events of the propagation are derived. This derivation is also completely done in the time domain, so that the high-frequency assumptions made in ray-theoretical studies are not necessary. This explain why ray theory often gives good results even when the assumptions for its validity are violated. [4] R.C.A. Biloti and L.T. Santos Study of Fractals Generated by Fixed Point Iterations Technical Report - IMECC - UNICAMP, RP 34/94, 1994 In this work we discuss the generation of fractals using fixed-point iterations in complet spaces, whose elements are non-empty compact subsets of R^n. We review some important theorems and their relations with the computation of the fractal dimension. We also report one appication of this technique: the fractal interpolation. [5] J.M. Martinez and L.T. Santos On the Resolution of The External Penalization Problem Technical Report - IMECC - UNICAMP, RP 40/94, 1994 Submitted to "Siam Journal on Optimization" We introduce a nonlinear system of equations whose solution corresponds to the minimizer of the classical quadratic penalty function. The resolution of this system by means of Newton's method does not have the drawbacks that are inherent to usual approaches. We give convergence results independent of the penalty parameter and we illustrate the theory with a numerical example. [6] L.T. Santos and W.W. Symes Efficient Free-Surface Kirchhoff Modeling Technical Report - Rice University, TR95-17, 1995 The aim of this work is to introduce a new scheme to apply Kirchhoff modeling efficiently to a 2-D acoustic model with a free surface and with irregular source and receiver locations. We consider as data all the traveltimes and amplitudes of each ray connecting points below some datum depth and points over this depth. We derive a new expression for the Kirchhoff formula which uses these computed traveltimes and amplitudes only. Given accurate components, the primary reflection seismograms computed via this new approach for the Kirchhoff method is remarkably accurate and less expensive than the usual technique. We also compare Kirchhoff seismograms with those produced from the same model by finite-difference solution of the linearized acoustic wave equation.