IMEX Runge-Kutta schemes for reaction-diffusion equations (Q2480925)

A common practice to get numerical solutions of evolutionary problems in partial differential equations (PDEs) is first discretize the PDE in space (by finite difference or finite element techniques) and then use some standard integrator (such as a Runge-Kutta method) to approximate in time the resulting system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). When the space discretization is carried out in reaction-diffusion PDEs, the corresponding ODE system typically has a stiff linear term and a non-stiff (or mildly stiff) nonlinear contribution. In that case implicit-explicit (IMEX) Runge-Kutta schemes constitute a valid option for the numerical treatment of the ODE. The main features of IMEX Runge-Kutta schemes for PDEs have been analyzed in the literature mainly in the context of advection-diffusion equations. The work under review, on the other hand, is focused on their application to reaction-diffusion problems, by studying their convergence and stability properties in this setting. Specifically, it is shown that, under certain conditions to be satisfied by the coefficients, the fully discrete schemes present a second-order convergence. The stability of the IMEX schemes is also characterized by examining the asymptotic behavior of numerical solutions of a scalar test equation. These results are illustrated by considering appropriately chosen numerical examples.