Filtered finite difference methods for nonlinear Schrödinger equations in semiclassical scaling

This paper introduces filtered finite difference methods for numerically solving a dispersive evolution equation with solutions that are highly oscillatory in both space and time. We consider a semiclassically scaled nonlinear Schrödinger equation with highly oscillatory initial data in the form of a modulated plane wave. The proposed methods do not need to resolve high-frequency oscillations in both space and time by prohibitively fine grids as would be required by standard finite difference methods. The approach taken here modifies traditional finite difference methods by incorporating appropriate filters. Specifically, we propose the filtered leapfrog and filtered Crank–Nicolson methods, both of which achieve second-order accuracy with time steps and mesh sizes that are not restricted in magnitude by the small semiclassical parameter. Furthermore, the filtered Crank–Nicolson method conserves both the discrete mass and a discrete energy. Numerical experiments illustrate the theoretical results.