Exact splitting methods for kinetic and Schrödinger equations (Q2221147)

The authors discuss some PDE involving a differential operator \(p^w\) whose symbol (in the Weyl quantization) is a polynomial function of degree 2 or less. It is said that the operator \(p^w\) can be computed by exact splitting if it can be factored into operators having a special basic form (see Definition 1 in the paper). Having an exact splitting in hand it is possible to discretize the PDE in question, by solving via pseudo-spectral methods or pointwise multiplications, and the discretized solution will converge to an actual solution of the PDE. The authors discuss transport equations, Focker-Planck equations, magnetic Schrödinger equations and rotating Gross-Pitaevskii equations. Each of these equations involve an operator with a quadratic symbol, for which the authors prove the exact splitting along with numerical results on the solutions.