Do the Euler method's approximations always approach the true solution? - MathOverflow most recent 30 from http://mathoverflow.net 2013-05-24T14:19:34Z http://mathoverflow.net/feeds/question/40699 http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdf http://mathoverflow.net/questions/40699/do-the-euler-methods-approximations-always-approach-the-true-solution Do the Euler method's approximations always approach the true solution? Ricky Demer 2010-10-01T01:47:37Z 2011-05-24T17:39:56Z <p>Let $B$ be a Banach space and $f : [0,+\infty)\times B \to B$ be a continuous function which is Lipschitz continuous in the second argument with Lipschitz constant $L$ (which does not depend on the first argument). By Picard-Lindelof, there is a unique function $x : [0,+\infty) \to B$ such that $x(0) = \mathbf{0}$ and for all $t\in [0,+\infty)$, $x'(t) = f(t,x(t))$. Define the family of functions $Euler_h : [0,+\infty) \to B$ to be the result of linear interpolation between the points obtained by the Euler method on $f$ with initial value $\mathbf{0}$ and step size $h$. Does it follow that $Euler_h$ converges compactly to the unique solution $x$ as $h$ goes to 0 from the right? If yes, is an explicit rate known?</p> <p>The results I have found are only for the points provided by the Euler method, and not for the approximating functions obtained from them.</p> http://mathoverflow.net/questions/40699/do-the-euler-methods-approximations-always-approach-the-true-solution/40763#40763 Answer by Dick Palais for Do the Euler method's approximations always approach the true solution? Dick Palais 2010-10-01T15:07:51Z 2010-10-01T15:14:50Z <p>The Picard-Lindelof Theorem is not quite correctly stated in your question. Recall that it is usually referred to as the LOCAL existence and uniqueness theorem, and it only guarantees a solution on a certain maximal interval [0,T), and for as simple a system as $x'=x^2$ the maximal existence time T is finite. That said, it is correct (with caveats) that the Euler method approximating solutions will converge to this "true" solution at all points of this maximal interval. The detailed story, with all the error estimates, is too complicated to state here, but you can find a careful discussion of this not only for Euler's Method, but also for a number of other methods, in Chapter 5 (Numerical Methods) of the book Differential Equations, Mechanics, and Computation (which I wrote together with my son Bob). There is a website for the book at <a href="http://ode-math.com" rel="nofollow">http://ode-math.com</a> where you can download for free more than half the book. In particular clicking here:</p> <p><a href="http://ode-math.com/PDF_Files/ChapterFirstPages/First38PagesOFChapter5.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://ode-math.com/PDF_Files/ChapterFirstPages/First38PagesOFChapter5.pdf</a></p> <p>will download the first 38 pages of chapter 5, where starting on page 144 you will find a careful discussion of the rate of convergence and stability properties etc, for Euler's method, starting from scratch.</p> http://mathoverflow.net/questions/40699/do-the-euler-methods-approximations-always-approach-the-true-solution/65882#65882 Answer by Nilima Nigam for Do the Euler method's approximations always approach the true solution? Nilima Nigam 2011-05-24T17:39:56Z 2011-05-24T17:39:56Z <p>You may also want to look at the literature on backward error analysis for ODE methods.</p>