Contractivity of Runge-Kutta methods with respect to forcing terms (Q1208532)

Both explicit and implicit Runge-Kutta methods are studied. The author starts with a list of stability definitions with respect to forcing terms, including some that are new. Subsequently the relationships between the various types of stability are established. Considering both discrete and continuous Runge-Kutta methods, conditions for the various types of stability are obtained. Numerous examples of Runge-Kutta methods are discussed from the point of view of the theory and, in particular, there is a detailed analysis of 3- stage methods of order 3. A number of open problems is partially settled by the results of this paper.