Numerical methods and asymptotic error expansions for the Emden-Fowler equations (Q1919514)

The author solves the boundary value problem \[ y''(x) + cx^p[y(x)]^q = 0,\quad x \in (0,1), \quad y(0) = 1,\quad y(1) = 0. \] The approximate solution is obtained in two stages. In the first stage, the Picard method is applied for linearization. In the second stage, for finding in each iteration an approximate solution of the appropriate linear boundary value problem the method of grids is applied. On the basis of asymptotic expansions for the discretization error, the author uses the E-algorithm of Brezinski to accelerate the convergence of the numerical solutions obtained by the finite difference method, for the three cases \(p = -{1\over 2}\), \(p = -1\), \(p = -{5\over 4}\). In the end some numerical results are presented.