Error estimation of the Relaxation Finite Difference Scheme for the nonlinear Schrödinger Equation

Abstract: We consider an initial- and boundary- value problem for the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions in the one space dimension case. We discretize the problem in space by a central finite difference method and in time by the Relaxation Scheme proposed by C. Besse [C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris S\'er. I {\bf 326} (1998), 1427-1432]. We provide optimal order error estimates, in the discrete $L_t^{\infty}(H_x^1)$ norm, for the approximation error at the time nodes and at the intermediate time nodes. In the context of the nonlinear Schr{\"o}dinger equation, it is the first time that the derivation of an error estimate, for a fully discrete method based on the Relaxation Scheme, is completely addressed.