Splitting and composition methods in the numerical integration of differential equations

We provide a comprehensive survey of splitting and composition methods for the numerical integration of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Splitting methods constitute an appropriate choice when the vector field associated with the ODE can be decomposed into several pieces and each of them is integrable. This class of integrators are explicit, simple to implement and preserve structural properties of the system. In consequence, they are specially useful in geometric numerical integration. In addition, the numerical solution obtained by splitting schemes can be seen as the exact solution to a perturbed system of ODEs possessing the same geometric properties as the original system. This backward error interpretation has direct implications for the qualitative behavior of the numerical solution as well as for the error propagation along time. Closely connected with splitting integrators are composition methods. We analyze the order conditions required by a method to achieve a given order and summarize the different families of schemes one can find in the literature. Finally, we illustrate the main features of splitting and composition methods on several numerical examples arising from applications.Comment: Review paper; 56 pages, 6 figures, 8 table

Analysis of a splitting scheme for a class of nonlinear stochastic Schr\uf6dinger equations

We analyze the qualitative properties and the order of convergence of a splitting scheme for a class of nonlinear stochastic Schr\uf6dinger equations driven by additive It\uf4 noise. The class of nonlinearities of interest includes nonlocal interaction cubic nonlinearities. We show that the numerical solution is symplectic and preserves the expected mass for all times. On top of that, for the convergence analysis, some exponential moment bounds for the exact and numerical solutions are proved. This enables us to provide strong orders of convergence as well as orders of convergence in probability and almost surely. Finally, extensive numerical experiments illustrate the performance of the proposed numerical scheme

A splitting method for SDEs with locally Lipschitz drift : illustration on the FitzHugh-Nagumo model

In this article, we construct and analyse an explicit numerical splitting method for a class of semi-linear stochastic differential equations (SDEs) with additive noise, where the drift is allowed to grow polynomially and satisfies a global one-sided Lipschitz condition. The method is proved to be mean-square convergent of order 1 and to preserve important structural properties of the SDE. First, it is hypoelliptic in every iteration step. Second, it is geometrically ergodic and has an asymptotically bounded second moment. Third, it preserves oscillatory dynamics, such as amplitudes, frequencies and phases of oscillations, even for large time steps. Our results are illustrated on the stochastic FitzHugh-Nagumo model and compared with known mean-square convergent tamed/truncated variants of the Euler-Maruyama method. The capability of the proposed splitting method to preserve the aforementioned properties may make it applicable within different statistical inference procedures. In contrast, known Euler-Maruyama type methods commonly fail in preserving such properties, yielding ill-conditioned likelihood-based estimation tools or computationally infeasible simulation-based inference algorithms

Qualitative properties of different numerical methods for the inhomogeneous geometric Brownian motion

We provide a comparative analysis of qualitative features of different numerical methods for the inhomogeneous geometric Brownian motion (IGBM). The limit distribution of the IGBM exists, its conditional and asymptotic mean and variance are known and the process can be characterised according to Feller’s boundary classification. We compare the frequently used Euler–Maruyama and Milstein methods, two Lie–Trotter and two Strang splitting schemes and two methods based on the ordinary differential equation (ODE) approach, namely the classical Wong–Zakai approximation and the recently proposed log-ODE scheme. First, we prove that, in contrast to the Euler–Maruyama and Milstein schemes, the splitting and ODE schemes preserve the boundary properties of the process, independently of the choice of the time discretisation step. Second, we prove that the limit distribution of the splitting and ODE methods exists for all stepsize values and parameters. Third, we derive closed-form expressions for the conditional and asymptotic means and variances of all considered schemes and analyse the resulting biases. While the Euler–Maruyama and Milstein schemes are the only methods which may have an asymptotically unbiased mean, the splitting and ODE schemes perform better in terms of variance preservation. The Strang schemes outperform the Lie–Trotter splittings, and the log-ODE scheme the classical ODE method. The mean and variance biases of the log-ODE scheme are very small for many relevant parameter settings. However, in some situations the two derived Strang splittings may be a better alternative, one of them requiring considerably less computational effort than the log-ODE method. The proposed analysis may be carried out in a similar fashion on other numerical methods and stochastic differential equations with comparable features

The Magnus expansion and some of its applications

Approximate resolution of linear systems of differential equations with varying coefficients is a recurrent problem shared by a number of scientific and engineering areas, ranging from Quantum Mechanics to Control Theory. When formulated in operator or matrix form, the Magnus expansion furnishes an elegant setting to built up approximate exponential representations of the solution of the system. It provides a power series expansion for the corresponding exponent and is sometimes referred to as Time-Dependent Exponential Perturbation Theory. Every Magnus approximant corresponds in Perturbation Theory to a partial re-summation of infinite terms with the important additional property of preserving at any order certain symmetries of the exact solution. The goal of this review is threefold. First, to collect a number of developments scattered through half a century of scientific literature on Magnus expansion. They concern the methods for the generation of terms in the expansion, estimates of the radius of convergence of the series, generalizations and related non-perturbative expansions. Second, to provide a bridge with its implementation as generator of especial purpose numerical integration methods, a field of intense activity during the last decade. Third, to illustrate with examples the kind of results one can expect from Magnus expansion in comparison with those from both perturbative schemes and standard numerical integrators. We buttress this issue with a revision of the wide range of physical applications found by Magnus expansion in the literature.Comment: Report on the Magnus expansion for differential equations and its applications to several physical problem