Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/iii/paper-69/5/a/solution

Along the exact ordinary differential equation solution, the chain rule gives . Insert the exact solution into the symmetric two-step two-derivative formula and expand about the middle time . Its unnormalized local truncation error is
The coefficients of , and are respectively
The centered residual is an odd function of , so every even power cancels. The next coefficient is
Thus the method has order six. Its zero-stability roots at are the simple roots . With sufficiently accurate starts and smooth derivative evaluation maps, convergence of a zero-stable multiderivative method gives sixth-order error on fixed time intervals. The first Dahlquist barrier for ordinary linear multistep methods does not apply, because this is a multiderivative multistep method.

New to topics? Read the docs here!