Regions of absolute stability of explicit Runge-Kutta-Nyström methods for \(y''=f(x,y,y')\) (Q1059988)

The single test problem \(y''+2\alpha y'+\beta^ 2y=0\) with \(\alpha,\beta >0\) is considered. The first author and \textit{S. R. Sharma} [ibid. 10, 163-168 (1984; Zbl 0568.65041)] identify R-K-N methods for which the asymptotic relative error function does not deteriorate. Here, it is shown that for some methods with this property, the regions of absolute stability are identical to those of Runge-Kutta methods applied to an equivalent first order problem. Stability regions which are drawn in the \((\alpha^ 2,\beta^ 2)\) plane rather than in terms of eigenvalues may be of interest.