Performance of affine-splitting pseudo-spectral methods for fractional complex Ginzburg-Landau equations

Abstract: We evaluate the performance of novel numerical methods for solving one-dimensional nonlinear fractional dispersive and dissipative evolution equations. The methods are based on affine combinations of time-splitting integrators and pseudo-spectral discretizations using Hermite and Fourier expansions. We show the effectiveness of the proposed methods by numerically computing the dynamics of soliton solutions of the the standard and fractional variants of the nonlinear Schr{\"o}dinger equation (NLSE) and the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE), and by comparing the results with those obtained by standard splitting integrators. An exhaustive numerical investigation shows that the new technique is competitive when compared to traditional composition-splitting schemes for the case of Hamiltonian problems both in terms accuracy and computational cost. Moreover, it is applicable straightforwardly to irreversible models, outperforming high-order symplectic integrators which could become unstable due to their need of negative time steps. Finally, we discuss potential improvements of the numerical methods aimed to increase their efficiency, and possible applications to the investigation of dissipative solitons that arise in nonlinear optical systems of contemporary interest. Overall, the method offers a promising alternative for solving a wide range of evolutionary partial differential equations.