In this paper, a new type of finite difference Hermite weighted essentially non-oscillatory (HWENO) schemes are constructed for solving Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) equations. Point values of both the solution and its first derivatives are used in the HWENO reconstruction and evolved via time advancing. While the evolution of the solution is still through the classical numerical fluxes to ensure convergence to weak solutions, the evolution of the first derivatives of the solution is through a simple dimension-by-dimension non-conservative procedure to gain efficiency. The main advantages of this new scheme include its compactness in the spatial field and its simplicity in the reconstructions. Extensive numerical experiments in one and two dimensional cases are performed to verify the accuracy, high resolution and efficiency of this new scheme.

In this paper, we present L2 and negative-order norm estimates for the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method solving variable coefficient Schrödinger equations. For these special solutions the LDG method exhibits ‘‘hidden accuracy", and we are able to extract it through the use of a convolution kernel that is composed of a linear combination of B-splines. This technical was initially introduced by Cockburn, Luskin, Shu, and Süli for linear hyperbolic equations and extended by Ryan et al. as a smoothness-increasing accuracy-conserving (SIAC) filter. We demonstrate that it is possible to extend the SIAC filter on Schrödinger equations. When polynomials of degree k are used, we can prove theoretically the LDG method solutions are of order k + 1, whereas the post-processed solutions that convolution with the SIAC filter are of order at least 2k. Additionally, we present numerical results to confirm that the accuracy of LDG solutions can be improved from O(hk+1) to at least O(h2k+1) for Schrödinger equations by using alternating numerical fluxes.

We are concerned with the convergence of Lax-Wendroff type schemes with high resolution to the entropy solutions for conservation laws. These schemes include the original Lax-Wendroff scheme proposed by Lax and Wendroff in 1960 and its two step versions–the Richtmyer scheme and the MacCormack scheme. For the convex scalar conservation laws with algebraic growth flux functions, we prove the convergence of these schemes to the weak solutions satisfying appropriate entropy inequalities. The proof is based on detailed L p estimates of the approximate solutions, H −1 compactness estimates of the corresponding entropy dissipation measures, and some compensated compactness frameworks. Then these techniques are generalized to study the convergence problem for the nonconvex scalar case and the hyperbolic systems of conservation

We present a new Matched Interface and Boundary (MIB) regularization method for treating charge singularity in solvated biomolecules whose electrostatics are described by the Poisson–Boltzmann (PB) equation. In a regularization method, by decomposing the potential function into two or three components, the singular component can be analytically represented by the Green’s function, while other components possess a higher regularity. Our new regularization combines the efficiency of two-component schemes with the accuracy of the three-component schemes. Based on this regularization, a new MIB finite difference algorithm is developed for solving both linear and nonlinear PB equations, where the nonlinearity is handled by using the inexact-Newton’s method. Compared with the existing MIB PB solver based on a three-component regularization, the present algorithm is simpler to implement by circumventing the work to solve a boundary value Poisson equation inside the molecular interface and to compute related interface jump conditions numerically. Moreover, the new MIB algorithm becomes computationally less expensive, while maintains the same second order accuracy. This is numerically verified by calculating the electrostatic potential and solvation energy on the Kirkwood sphere on which the analytical solutions are available and on a series of proteins with various sizes.

Since 2000, the study of metamaterial has been a very hot topic due to its potential applications in many areas such as design of invisibility cloak and sub-wavelength imaging. Although several metamaterial models are often used by physicists and engineers, the study of their mathematical properties has lagged behind. In this paper, we initiate our investigation in the plasma-Lorentz model. More specifically, we first discuss the well-posedness of this model, then develop two fully-discrete finite element methods for solving it. Detailed stability and error analysis are carried out, and 3-D numerical results justifying our theoretical analysis are presented.