Order conditions for integrators and mappings with applications (Q2643453)

The author presents the order conditions for some Runge-Kutta-like methods, such as one-step Runge-Kutta methods, explicit Runge-Kutta-type methods with derivatives, a class of two-step Runge-Kutta proposed by \textit{D. Goeken} and \textit{O. Johnson} [Appl. Numer. Math. 34, No. 2--3, 207--218 (2000; Zbl 0951.65068)], \textit{X. Y. Wu} [Appl. Math. Comput. 146, No. 2--3, 417--432 (2003; Zbl 1032.65077), ibid. 155, No. 3, 779--811 (2004; Zbl 1061.65069)], and three-step Runge-Kutta methods, based on using the elementary weight mappings, the composition formula of two mappings as well as the identity mapping \(I\), the derivative mapping \(D_r\) and the shifting mapping (forward or backward) \(E^{(\nu)}\), defined on the set \(T\) of all rooted trees from an input to an output. The first section represents an introduction concerning the initial-value problem for an ordinary differential equation in autonomous form \[ y'(x)=f(y(x)),\quad y(x_0)=y_0, \] the Taylor series expansion of the exact solution, the \(s\)-stage Runge-Kutta method, and the elementary weight functions which express the mappings from an input value \(y_n\) to output values. The second section focuses on the order conditions, based on the ones for the explicit Runge-Kutta type methods with derivatives based on mappings, for a class of \(s\)-stage Runge-Kutta-type methods. In the third section one uses the approach based on mappings to investigate the order conditions for a class of two-step Runge-Kutta methods. The elementary weight vectors and the order conditions up to order 5 are displayed in two tables. One obtains an explicit two-step Runge-Kutta method of order 5 with only four function evaluations. The fourth section concerns the order conditions for a class of three-step Runge-Kutta methods based on mappings. The last section contains the conclusions.