The nonexistence of spurious solutions to discrete, two-point boundary value problems (Q1861860)

The authors consider the continuous two-point boundary value problem \[ y''=f(x,y,y'),\;0\leq x\leq 1,\;y(0)=A,\;y(1)=B, \] and its discrete approximation \[ \frac{\Delta^2y_{k+1}}{h^2}=f\left(x_k,y_k,\frac{\Delta y_k}{h}\right),\;k=1,\dots,n-1,\;y_0=A,\;y_n=B, \] where \(f\) is continuous and vector-valued, the step size \(h=1/n\), grid points \(x_k=kh\) for \(k=0,\dots,n\), and \(\Delta\) is the backward difference operator. They formulate conditions under which all solutions to the discrete problem satisfy certain a priori bounds which are independent of the step-size. As a result, the nonexistence of spurious solutions is guaranteed. Some existence and convergence theorems for solutions to the discrete problem are also presented.