LU decomposition is a method to solve systems of linear equations by decomposing the coefficient matrix A into the product of a lower triangular matrix L and an upper triangular matrix U. It involves (1) decomposing A into L and U, (2) solving LZ = C for Z, and (3) solving UX = Z for X to find the solution vector X. The document provides an example using LU decomposition to solve a system of 3 linear equations.