Time behaviour of the error when simulating finite-band periodic waves. The case of the KdV equation (Q2476876)

The author discusses geometric numerical time integrators for the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation with periodic boundary conditions and finite-band potentials as initial conditions. The paper highlights the importance of taking into account geometric properties of the exact flow like conserved quantities (of which there are infinitely many for the KdV equation) when devising a numerical integrator. As a tool in the theoretical treatment, the coefficient functions appearing in the asymptotic expansion of the global error are analyzed. The error behavior as a function of the order up to which invariants of the underlying equation are preserved by the numerical method is concluded and illustrated by numerical experiments.