Regularizing time transformations in symplectic and composite integration (Q1610307)

It is well-known that symplectic integrators require constant time steps. This restriction can be overcome by using an extended phase space where the time is an additional dynamical variable (with an associated momentum), and by performing there a suitable canonical transformation. The authors study generalisations of some known transformations and apply them to perturbed Kepler problems. Using suitable decompositions of the Hamiltonian, they derive explicit methods with a physical time step that adjusts to both the central and perturbing potential. Numerical results are presented for some simple test problems.