  We present an iterative algorithm, called the symmetric tensor eigen-rank-one
iterative decomposition (STEROID), for decomposing a symmetric tensor into a
real linear combination of symmetric rank-1 unit-norm outer factors using only
eigendecompositions and least-squares fitting. Originally designed for a
symmetric tensor with an order being a power of two, STEROID is shown to be
applicable to any order through an innovative tensor embedding technique.
Numerical examples demonstrate the high efficiency and accuracy of the proposed
scheme even for large scale problems. Furthermore, we show how STEROID readily
solves a problem in nonlinear block-structured system identification and
nonlinear state-space identification.
