On a splitting method for the Zakharov system (Q1646642)

The Zakharov system, which describes the propagation of Langmuir waves in a plasma, is considered. The authors employ a well-established method, i.e., a Lie-Trotter splitting in time combined with a Fourier collocation in space, which has been proven to work well through extensive numerical testing. However, a rigorous error analysis of such methods has been lacking in the literature. The complexity lies in the formal loss of spatial regularity (loss of spatial derivatives) in the Zakharov system, which the numerical method and analysis need to be able to overcome. Hence, this article is devoted to a rigorous error analysis of the method considered here. The authors prove first-order convergence in time and high-order convergence in space, depending on the regularity of the exact solution. A CFL-type step-size restriction on the discretization parameter is developed, indicating the circumstance under which the error bounds holds. Given the temporal and spatial error bounds obtained, this CFL condition is in fact a natural restriction on the discretization parameters. Numerical experiments are utilised to show that this condition is not only sufficient but also necessary for convergence.