Existence and stability of equilibrium states of Runge-Kutta schemes (Q804249)

The behavior of variable stepsize Runge-Kutta methods considered as discrete dynamical systems is studied. The authors assume that the current stepsize \(h_ n\) at each step is determined so that a norm of an estimate of the local error is equal to a given tolerance. Then, for linear systems of differential equation \(y'=Ay\) the transformation from the variables \((h_ n,y_ n)\) at the gridpoint \(t_ n\) to \((h_{n+1},y_{n+1})\) at the next gridpoint \(t_{n+1}\) defines explicitly the equations of a discrete dynamical system whose equilibrium states are studied. It must be remarked that the equilibrium definition used here differs from the one used by \textit{G. Hall} [ACM Trans. Math. Software 12, 183-192 (1986; Zbl 0633.65062)].