Hamiltonian-preserving schemes for the Liouville equation of geometrical optics with discontinuous local wave speeds (Q2489685)

The authors construct and study two classes of Hamiltonian-preserving schemes for the Liouville equation arising in the phase space description of geometrical optics. These schemes are effective when the local wave speed is discontinuous, corresponding to different media. The schemes have a hyperbolic CFL condition which is a significant improvement over a conventional discretization. The main idea is to build in the wave behavior at the interface -- which conserves the Hamiltonian -- into the numerical flux. This gives a selection criterion on the choice of a unique solution to this linear hyperbolic equation with singular coefficients. It allows the wave to be transmitted obeying Snell's law of refraction, or be reflected. The stability theory of these discretizations is studied and numerical experiments to study the numerical accuracy, are given.