The number of conditions for a Runge-Kutta method to have effective order \(p\) (Q5961736)

A numerical method \(Y_{n+1}=\Psi_h(Y_n)\) for the numerical solution of \(y'=f(y)\) is said to have effective order \(p\), if there exists a mapping \(\chi_h\) such that the procedure \(y_{n+1}=(\chi_h^{-1}\circ \Psi_h \circ \chi_h )(y_n)\) represents a one-step method of order \(p\). By introducing the freedom of choosing \(\chi_h\), the number of order conditions is reduced. In this article it is shown that for \(p>1\) the number of order conditions for effective order \(p\) is equal to the number of rooted trees with \(p\) vertices plus one. Recall that the number of order conditions for (classical) order \(p\) is equal to the number of rooted trees with \(\leq p\) vertices.