On numerical methods for the semi-nonrelativistic limit system of the nonlinear Dirac equation

Abstract

Solving the nonlinear Dirac equation in the nonrelativistic limit regime numerically is difficult, because the solution oscillates in time with frequency of {mathscr {O}} ! left( varepsilon ^{-2}right) , where 0<varepsilon ll 1 is inversely proportional to the speed of light. Yongyong Cai and Yan Wang have shown, however, that such solutions can be approximated up to an error of {mathscr {O}} ! left( varepsilon ^2right) by solving the semi-nonrelativistic limit system, which is a non-oscillatory problem. For this system, we construct a two-step method, called the explicit exponential midpoint rule, and prove second-order convergence of the semi-discretization in time. Furthermore, we construct a benchmark method based on standard techniques and compare the efficiency of both methods. Numerical experiments show that the new integrator reduces the computational costs per time step to 40% and within a given runtime improves the accuracy significantly.