Convergence analysis of the maximum principle preserving BDF2 scheme with variable time-steps for the space fractional Allen–Cahn equation

Abstract

In this work, a fully implicit discrete scheme preserving the maximum principle is analyzed for solving the space fractional Allen–Cahn equation with variable step BDF2 in time. The convergence analysis in L∞ norm is rigorously proved under the same requirement of time-step ratios for the maximum principle by means of the kernels recombination technique. Furthermore, the unique solvability of the proposed scheme is theoretically guaranteed depending on the property of convex functions. The energy decay law with the consideration of Riesz fractional derivative is also proved under sufficient restrictions on time-steps and time-step ratios. Numerical experiments are given to validate the second order accuracy in time, the maximum principle as well as the energy decay law of the proposed numerical scheme. In particular, comparisons of errors and time levels for the adaptive time-stepping strategy and uniform time steps are conducted to demonstrate the efficiency of adaptive time-stepping strategy.