Leapfrog Crank--Nicolson decoupling of wave--heat-type problems
Abstract
This paper proposes and analyzes a numerical method for coupled wave-heat systems that arise, for example, in visco-elasticity with memory, thermo-elastic wave propagation with finite thermal speed, and Maxwell's equations coupled to dispersive material laws. Motivated by the widespread use of explicit leapfrog schemes for wave problems and the parabolic time-step restriction for heat equations, we design a second-order scheme that combines leapfrog time integration for the wave part with a Crank--Nicolson step for the heat part. The coupling is arranged in a Strang-splitting--type fashion so that the overall scheme remains explicit in the coupling and is subject only to a CFL condition of hyperbolic type, rather than the more restrictive parabolic constraint. We introduce an abstract space discretization that covers a broad class of wave--heat systems and accommodates both conforming and stabilized non-conforming discretizations. Using a general error decomposition, we derive error estimates for the fully discrete scheme under the desired CFL condition. Numerical experiments for our model applications confirm the theoretical results.
Related
- A Priori and A Posteriori Error Estimates for a Crank Nicolson Type Scheme of an Elliptic Problem with Dynamical Boundary Conditions
- Unconditional optimal convergence of a relaxation Crank-Nicolson difference scheme for 2D space-fractional NLS
- Efficient and Accurate Lift-and-Decoupling Generalized Transferable Neural Networks for Elliptic and Moving Interface Problems
- Faster Hamiltonian Monte Carlo by learning leapfrog scale: an offline randomized solution
- CQ-collocation BEMs for exterior wave propagation problems: the 3D Neumann case
BibTeX
@misc{dorich2026leapfrog,
title = {{Leapfrog Crank--Nicolson decoupling of wave--heat-type problems}},
author = {Benjamin Dörich and Julian Dörner},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.09603},
eprint = {2610.09603},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.09603},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Leapfrog Crank--Nicolson decoupling of wave--heat-type problems
AU - Benjamin Dörich
AU - Julian Dörner
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.09603
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.09603
AB - This paper proposes and analyzes a numerical method for coupled wave-heat systems that arise, for example, in visco-elasticity with memory, thermo-elastic wave propagation with finite thermal speed, and Maxwell's equations coupled to dispersive material laws. Motivated by the widespread use of explicit leapfrog schemes for wave problems and the parabolic time-step restriction for heat equations, we design a second-order scheme that combines leapfrog time integration for the wave part with a Crank--Nicolson step for the heat part. The coupling is arranged in a Strang-splitting--type fashion so that the overall scheme remains explicit in the coupling and is subject only to a CFL condition of hyperbolic type, rather than the more restrictive parabolic constraint. We introduce an abstract space discretization that covers a broad class of wave--heat systems and accommodates both conforming and stabilized non-conforming discretizations. Using a general error decomposition, we derive error estimates for the fully discrete scheme under the desired CFL condition. Numerical experiments for our model applications confirm the theoretical results.
ER -