Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/iii/paper-67/1/a/solution

Introduce one stage with , and update . This is the implicit midpoint rule as a one-stage Runge-Kutta method, with Butcher tableau
For a smooth vector field, write . Expanding its stage equation gives
which matches the exact Taylor expansion through degree two. The method therefore has order at least two. On the Dahlquist test equation , its stability function is
The third coefficient differs from the exponential's , so the order is exactly two.
There is no pole in , and
Thus throughout the closed left half-plane:
This conclusion is A-stability, not strong damping of arbitrarily stiff modes: along the negative real axis.

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