We study asymptotically constrained systems for numerical integration of the
Einstein equations, which are intended to be robust against perturbative errors
for the free evolution of the initial data. First, we examine the previously
proposed "λ-system", which introduces artificial flows to constraint
surfaces based on the symmetric hyperbolic formulation. We show that this
system works as expected for the wave propagation problem in the Maxwell system
and in general relativity using Ashtekar's connection formulation. Second, we
propose a new mechanism to control the stability, which we call the ``adjusted
system". This is simply obtained by adding constraint terms in the dynamical
equations and adjusting its multipliers. We explain why a particular choice of
multiplier reduces the numerical errors from non-positive or pure-imaginary
eigenvalues of the adjusted constraint propagation equations. This ``adjusted
system" is also tested in the Maxwell system and in the Ashtekar's system. This
mechanism affects more than the system's symmetric hyperbolicity.Comment: 16 pages, RevTeX, 9 eps figures, added Appendix B and minor changes,
to appear in Class. Quant. Gra