Spline collocation methods for nonlinear Volterra integral equations with unknown delay (Q1919941)

The paper is concerned with the numerical solution of a system of two Volterra integral equations with unknown lower integral limit (unknown delay) arising in mathematical economics. First, the authors present some existence, uniqueness and smoothness results for this kind of systems of Volterra integral equations. Next, the continuous collocation method is constructed. The exact solution of the system is approximated by the piecewise polynomial spline functions of degree \(m - 1\), \(m\) a given natural number. Then, the global convergence behaviour of the collocation solution and the local superconvergence are described. If, for the computation of the integrals arising in the collocation equations, suitable quadratures are used, the authors obtain an \(m\)-stage implicit Runge-Kutta type method for the system of Volterra integral equations. Numerical illustration is also performed.