Multisymplectic geometry, variational integrators, and nonlinear PDEs

This paper presents a geometric-variational approach to continuous and discrete mechanics and field theories. Using multisymplectic geometry, we show that the existence of the fundamental geometric structures as well as their preservation along solutions can be obtained directly from the variational principle. In particular, we prove that a unique multisymplectic structure is obtained by taking the derivative of an action function, and use this structure to prove covariant generalizations of conservation of symplecticity and Noether's theorem. Natural discretization schemes for PDEs, which have these important preservation properties, then follow by choosing a discrete action functional. In the case of mechanics, we recover the variational symplectic integrators of Veselov type, while for PDEs we obtain covariant spacetime integrators which conserve the corresponding discrete multisymplectic form as well as the discrete momentum mappings corresponding to symmetries. We show that the usual notion of symplecticity along an infinite-dimensional space of fields can be naturally obtained by making a spacetime split. All of the aspects of our method are demonstrated with a nonlinear sine-Gordon equation, including computational results and a comparison with other discretization schemes.Comment: LaTeX2E, 52 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Comm. Math. Phy

New variational and multisymplectic formulations of the Euler-Poincar\'e equation on the Virasoro-Bott group using the inverse map

We derive a new variational principle, leading to a new momentum map and a new multisymplectic formulation for a family of Euler--Poincar\'e equations defined on the Virasoro-Bott group, by using the inverse map (also called `back-to-labels' map). This family contains as special cases the well-known Korteweg-de Vries, Camassa-Holm, and Hunter-Saxton soliton equations. In the conclusion section, we sketch opportunities for future work that would apply the new Clebsch momentum map with $2$-cocycles derived here to investigate a new type of interplay among nonlinearity, dispersion and noise.Comment: 19 page

Multisymplectic Lie group variational integrator for a geometrically exact beam in R3

In this paper we develop, study, and test a Lie group multisymplectic integra- tor for geometrically exact beams based on the covariant Lagrangian formulation. We exploit the multisymplectic character of the integrator to analyze the energy and momentum map conservations associated to the temporal and spatial discrete evolutions.Comment: Article in press. 22 pages, 18 figures. Received 20 November 2013, Received in revised form 26 February 2014, Accepted 27 February 2014. Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation. 201

Space-time FLAVORS: finite difference, multisymlectic, and pseudospectral integrators for multiscale PDEs

We present a new class of integrators for stiff PDEs. These integrators are generalizations of FLow AVeraging integratORS (FLAVORS) for stiff ODEs and SDEs introduced in [Tao, Owhadi and Marsden 2010] with the following properties: (i) Multiscale: they are based on flow averaging and have a computational cost determined by mesoscopic steps in space and time instead of microscopic steps in space and time; (ii) Versatile: the method is based on averaging the flows of the given PDEs (which may have hidden slow and fast processes). This bypasses the need for identifying explicitly (or numerically) the slow variables or reduced effective PDEs; (iii) Nonintrusive: A pre-existing numerical scheme resolving the microscopic time scale can be used as a black box and easily turned into one of the integrators in this paper by turning the large coefficients on over a microscopic timescale and off during a mesoscopic timescale; (iv) Convergent over two scales: strongly over slow processes and in the sense of measures over fast ones; (v) Structure-preserving: for stiff Hamiltonian PDEs (possibly on manifolds), they can be made to be multi-symplectic, symmetry-preserving (symmetries are group actions that leave the system invariant) in all variables and variational

Asynchronous Variational Integrators

We describe a new class of asynchronous variational integrators (AVI) for nonlinear elastodynamics. The AVIs are distinguished by the following attributes: (i) The algorithms permit the selection of independent time steps in each element, and the local time steps need not bear an integral relation to each other; (ii) the algorithms derive from a spacetime form of a discrete version of Hamilton’s variational principle. As a consequence of this variational structure, the algorithms conserve local momenta and a local discrete multisymplectic structure exactly. To guide the development of the discretizations, a spacetime multisymplectic formulation of elastodynamics is presented. The variational principle used incorporates both configuration and spacetime reference variations. This allows a unified treatment of all the conservation properties of the system.A discrete version of reference configuration is also considered, providing a natural definition of a discrete energy. The possibilities for discrete energy conservation are evaluated. Numerical tests reveal that, even when local energy balance is not enforced exactly, the global and local energy behavior of the AVIs is quite remarkable, a property which can probably be traced to the symplectic nature of the algorith

Multisymplectic Geometry and Multisymplectic Preissman Scheme for the KP Equation

The multisymplectic structure of the KP equation is obtained directly from the variational principal. Using the covariant De Donder-Weyl Hamilton function theories, we reformulate the KP equation to the multisymplectic form which proposed by Bridges. From the multisymplectic equation, we can derive a multisymplectic numerical scheme of the KP equation which can be simplified to multisymplectic forty-five points scheme.Comment: 17 papges, 8 figure

Variational Structures in Cochain Projection Based Variational Discretizations of Lagrangian PDEs

Compatible discretizations, such as finite element exterior calculus, provide a discretization framework that respect the cohomological structure of the de Rham complex, which can be used to systematically construct stable mixed finite element methods. Multisymplectic variational integrators are a class of geometric numerical integrators for Lagrangian and Hamiltonian field theories, and they yield methods that preserve the multisymplectic structure and momentum-conservation properties of the continuous system. In this paper, we investigate the synthesis of these two approaches, by constructing discretization of the variational principle for Lagrangian field theories utilizing structure-preserving finite element projections. In our investigation, compatible discretization by cochain projections plays a pivotal role in the preservation of the variational structure at the discrete level, allowing the discrete variational structure to essentially be the restriction of the continuum variational structure to a finite-dimensional subspace. The preservation of the variational structure at the discrete level will allow us to construct a discrete Cartan form, which encodes the variational structure of the discrete theory, and subsequently, we utilize the discrete Cartan form to naturally state discrete analogues of Noether's theorem and multisymplecticity, which generalize those introduced in the discrete Lagrangian variational framework by Marsden et al. [29]. We will study both covariant spacetime discretization and canonical spatial semi-discretization, and subsequently relate the two in the case of spacetime tensor product finite element spaces.Comment: 44 pages, 1 figur

Some applications of semi-discrete variational integrators to classical field theories

We develop a semi-discrete version of discrete variational mechanics with applications to numerical integration of classical field theories. The geometric preservation properties are studied.Comment: 14 page