A note on symplecticity of step-transition mappings for multi-step methods (Q2503020)

It is shown that step-transition mappings applied to generate a solution to an \(m\)-step numerical approximation to a Hamiltonian system of differential equations can not all be symplectic. Let (i) \(Z'(t)=F(Z(t))\), \(Z(t)\in C^1(R^{2n})\), where \(F(Z)=J\nabla(H)Z\) and let the approximation be \[ \sum^m_{k=0}\alpha_kZ_k=\tau \sum^m_{k=0}\beta_kF(Z_k),\quad Z_k=Z(t_k)\in R^{2n}.\tag{2} \] The authors prove that if a solution to (ii) is generated stepwise by determining transformations \(T_i:Z_i\to Z_{i+1}\), \(i=0,1,\dots,m-1\) and if \(T_i\) are sympletic \(i=0,\dots,m-2\), then \(T_{m-1}\) cannot be symplectic. This extends a known result when \(T_i\) are step-transitions operators based on the onestep method by E. Hairer, P. Leone and Y. F. Tang [cf. \textit{Y. Tang}, Comput. Math. Appl. 25, No. 3, 83--90 (1993; Zbl 0774.65053)].