A symplectic algorithm for wave equations (Q676561)

The authors describe the symplectic structure and a symplectic algorithm for finite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems, with emphasis on separable Hamiltonian functions. These symplectic methods for Hamiltonian systems are applied to construct a class of numerical schemes for nonlinear wave equations. The numerical results from test problems (an initial-boundary value problem with smooth solution, an initial value problem with piecewise smooth solution, and the sine-Gordon equation with soliton solution) show that these schemes compare favourably with conventional difference methods, such as Lax-Friedrichs and Lax-Wendroff.