Hamiltonian Interpolation of Splitting Approximations for Nonlinear PDEs

Abstract

We consider a wide class of semilinear Hamiltonian partial differential equations and their approximation by time splitting methods. We assume that the nonlinearity is polynomial, and that the numerical trajectory remains at least uniformly integrable with respect to an eigenbasis of the linear operator (typically the Fourier basis). We show the existence of a modified interpolated Hamiltonian equation whose exact solution coincides with the discrete flow at each time step over a long time. While for standard splitting or implicit–explicit schemes, this long time depends on a cut-off condition in the high frequencies (CFL condition), we show that it can be made exponentially large with respect to the step size for a class of modified splitting schemes.