Volume preserving RK methods for linear systems (Q1594867)

The authors of this interesting paper study under what conditions a source-free system \( y\prime =My\) has volume-preserving Runge-Kutta (RK) schemes. Here \(M\) is an \(n\times n\) square matrix with trace \(\operatorname {tr} M = 0\). If \(\det M \equiv 0\), the system can degrade to a lower stage case and having in mind this one assumes that \(\det M\neq 0\). For these systems the authors give a comparatively thorough discussion about RK methods to be phase volume preserving integrators. The relationship between volume-preserving integrators and symplectic integrators is strictly analyzed.