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A boundary closure supplies the boundary rows or ghost values needed by a spatial finite difference method. It must reflect the PDE boundary data and preserve a mesh-uniform stability estimate. Interior Von Neumann stability analysis cannot detect an arbitrary unstable boundary row; for example a row $U_1^{n+1}=2U_1^n$ produces growth even beside an otherwise stable heat stencil.

For a linear recurrence relation with two distinct characteristic equation of a linear recurrence roots $r_1,r_2$, the solution is $u_n=A{r}_1^n+B{r}_2^n$. If $|r_1|<1<|r_2|$, boundedness for $n\to \infty$ forces $B=0$, and $u_0$ fixes $A$. This selects the decaying discrete mode in a finite difference method for a boundary problem on an unbounded interval. Roots on the unit circle require separate treatment; a repeated root there can contribute an unbounded factor $n$.

Use dollar holdings ${\theta }_0,\dots ,{\theta }_n$, including the traded index, and let $m=\log M$. The Itô formula givesDefine the state-dependent correlation $q(m)=\rho (e^m)$, $d(m)=\sqrt{1-q(m{)}^2}>0$, and constants $p_i=({\mu }_i-r)/{\sigma }_i$. The self-financing portfolio with consumption has wealth equationSince all these assets are traded and $d(m)>0$, the volatility map is invertible. It is useful to optimize over Brownian portfolio exposureswhose market price of risk vector isIndeed ${\sum }_i({\mu }_i-r){\theta }_i=\ell \cdot y$. Put $L^2(m)=p_0^2+{\sum }_{i=1}^n{\ell }_i(m{)}^2$.

For $R\ne 1$, normalize constant relative risk aversion utility to $U(c)=c^{1-R}/(1-R)$. Scaling wealth, holdings, and consumption by $a>0$ leaves the index state unchanged and multiplies reward by $a^{1-R}$. ThusFor a finite smooth value with $V_{ww}<0$, the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, including the shared-noise cross derivative, isThe last term is essential: index changes and the $W^0$ component of wealth are correlated. The first-order conditions yieldBecause $V_w=w^{-R}f$, $V_{ww}=-R{w}^{-R-1}f$, and $V_{wm}=w^{-R}{f}^{\prime }$, the optimized portfolio contribution isSubstitution gives the requested second-order nonlinear equationRecovering dollar holdings from the exposures gives the optimal controlsOnly the index holding carries the extra intertemporal hedging demand, because the index is the source of state variation. The stock positions hedge their common exposure through the index.

The power transformation of a complete-market investment equation gives a useful further simplification. Let $g=f^{1/R}$, and defineExpanding the squared term and substituting $f=g^R$ cancels the two $(g^{\prime }{)}^2$ terms. The power-transformed investment equation is linear:Then $c^{\ast }=w/g$ and $f^{\prime }/f=R{g}^{\prime }/g$. A practical finite difference method solves this linear differential equation on an expanding truncated interval in $m$, enforcing the economically relevant positive solution and checking domain and mesh convergence. If correlation approaches limits strictly inside $(-1,1)$ and the corresponding ${\delta }_{\pm }>0$, the constant-coefficient Merton consumption-investment problem gives endpoint approximations $g\to 1/{\delta }_{\pm }$. Without such asymptotics one must determine appropriate growth/transversality conditions; arbitrary fixed endpoint values are not justified. The statement's smooth decreasing correlation alone does not ensure globally bounded market prices of risk or a finite value. Any numerical candidate must also satisfy admissibility and the investment value transversality condition.

The printed $R>0$ includes $R=1$. In that case choose $U(c)=\log c$, whose scaling is additive:There is no shared-noise cross derivative because $V_{wm}=0$. The logarithmic case isThus the dollar holdings are the preceding formulas with $R=1$ and the $f^{\prime }/f$ hedge term omitted. This linear differential equation can be solved by the same truncation and convergence strategy.

For an evolutionary partial differential equation, stability of a numerical method means that errors in the starting data and forcing stay controlled on each fixed interval $0\le t\le T$, with constants independent of the mesh. Fourier stability analysis is especially effective for a constant-coefficient finite difference method on a uniform infinite or periodic grid: translation invariance makes different Fourier modes evolve independently.

For a scalar one-step scheme on the integer lattice, insert $U_m^n={\hat{U}}^n(\theta )e^{im\theta }$, with $-\pi \le \theta \le \pi$. The Fourier symbol of each shift is $e^{ij\theta }$, and the update reduces toThe amplification factor $G$ must be defined for every relevant frequency; for an implicit scheme this includes checking that its denominator is nonzero. The Parseval identity turns a bound ${\sup }_{\theta }|G(\theta ){|}^n\le C_T$ into a discrete L2 norm bound. Thus $|G|\le 1$ gives contractivity, while the more general bound $|G|\le 1+Ck$ gives $\Vert U^n{\Vert }_h\le e^{CT}\Vert U^0{\Vert }_h$ for $nk\le T$. Conversely, frequencies with amplification uniformly greater than one produce unstable wave packets or periodic Fourier modes under refinement.

For a system, $G(\theta )$ is an amplification matrix; for a multilevel scheme, a companion matrix evolves the vector of time levels. The actual requirement is a uniform bound on matrix powers, not just their spectral radius. A nontrivial Jordan block at a unit-modulus eigenvalue creates polynomial growth in the time index. Even simple eigenvalues inside the unit disk can fail to give a uniform bound if the eigenvector matrices become ill-conditioned as the mesh changes. Uniformly controlled diagonalization of a matrix, or a suitable quadratic energy estimate, resolves this issue. The power boundedness of a two-level Fourier scheme illustrates why root multiplicities and conditioning matter.

For the heat equation, put $\mu =k/h_x^2$. Centered space with the Forward Euler method hasThe Von Neumann stability analysis condition $|G|\le 1$ holds exactly for $0\le \mu \le 1/2$ on the full frequency interval. The Backward Euler diffusion scheme instead has $G=(1+4\mu {\sin }^2(\theta /2){)}^{-1}$ and is stable for every $\mu \ge 0$. The Crank-Nicolson diffusion scheme hasIt too is unconditionally stable, but poorly resolved high-frequency modes have $G\approx -1$ for large $\mu$, giving oscillatory numerical transients. A-stability therefore does not guarantee strong damping; L-stability distinguishes the damping of the Backward Euler method.

For the advection equation $u_t+c{u}_x=0$, let $\nu =ck/h_x$. Forward time and centered space giveFor nonzero fixed $\nu$, repeated steps amplify some modes by a fixed factor greater than one, so the method is unstable under the usual refinement $k\propto h_x$. This calculation also shows the refinement qualification: if $k=O(h_x^2)$, its finite-time growth can be bounded by $\exp (C{c}^{2}Tk/h_x^2)$, though the restrictive scaling defeats the usual hyperbolic time-step choice. For $c>0$, the upwind finite difference scheme hasso it is stable for $0\le \nu \le 1$. The Lax-Wendroff advection scheme instead hasgiving $|\nu |\le 1$. These examples separate the effects of the spatial stencil, temporal approximation and Courant number; a higher order of a numerical method by itself does not establish stability.

A periodic boundary condition is ideal for this analysis. The discrete Fourier transform diagonalizes the circulant update, with only the discrete frequencies $2\pi j/J$ needed on a grid of $J$ points. A bound on all $\theta$ is a convenient guarantee over every such grid. On the whole line, the Fourier transform uses a continuous frequency interval and the Parseval identity proves the corresponding square-summable-data estimate.

Homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions do not admit arbitrary complex exponential Fourier modes. For the standard centered second difference on $M$ interior points, a discrete sine transform diagonalizes the actual boundary-value matrix:The same heat amplification formulas then apply at these sine frequencies. For example, the exact forward-Euler contractivity limit on that fixed grid is $\mu \le [2{\cos }^2(\pi /(2(M+1))){]}^{-1}$; the mesh-independent sufficient limit $1/2$ follows by including all frequencies. Homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions can similarly permit a discrete cosine transform, provided the endpoint discretization and its weighted inner product are chosen consistently. The constant mode is then present, reflecting conservation of the heat equation's spatial mean. For inhomogeneous boundary conditions, subtract a suitable lifting of the prescribed boundary data and estimate the induced source using the homogeneous evolution's bound and a Duhamel principle estimate. Bounds for the lifting and source must themselves be uniform in the mesh.

General boundary conditions require separate boundary stability of a finite-difference method. For an advection equation, incoming data are prescribed at the inflow boundary, while an outflow closure must respect the outgoing characteristics. An interior periodic Fourier symbol cannot detect a growing mode confined near a boundary. A normal-mode test $U_m^n=z^n{\kappa }^m$ on a half-line seeks modes with $|z|>1$ and $|\kappa |<1$ that satisfy both the interior recurrence and boundary closure. Their existence proves instability, and uniform control requires more than merely excluding isolated growing roots; the Uniform Kreiss--Lopatinskii condition addresses boundary resolvent bounds. Alternatively, a direct energy method using summation by parts can include the boundary terms and establish the required estimate.

Variable coefficients and nonuniform meshes usually destroy exact Fourier transform diagonalization. Frozen-coefficient Fourier stability analysis is then a useful diagnostic, but it is not automatically a proof for the full variable-coefficient boundary problem. The mesh-uniform energy method in question 5 is an example of a direct proof. Also, an L2 norm proof is not automatically a mesh-uniform maximum-norm proof: finite-dimensional norm-equivalence constants may grow with the number of grid points.

Finally, stability measures error propagation; consistency of a numerical method measures the defect of inserting the exact solution. For a well-posed linear initial-value problem in the chosen norm, the Lax equivalence theorem says that a consistent approximation is convergent exactly when it is stable. Boundary discretization and starting data must be included in that assertion. A Fourier calculation proves convergence only after consistency, well-posedness and the actual boundary treatment have also been checked.

Divide the second-order difference equation by $h^2$ and set $x=nh$. The first quotient is a central finite difference approximation to $y^{\prime \prime }(x)$; the quotient $(y_{n+1}-y_{n-1})/(2h)$ approximates $y^{\prime }(x)$. Their Taylor series errors are $O(h^2)$ for a sufficiently smooth function. This is therefore a finite difference method for the second-order linear differential equation in part (a).

At a fixed $x\ge 0$, take $h\to 0$ with $n=x/h$ integral. Since $\log r_{-}=-2h+O(h^3)$, the exact bounded discrete solution satisfiesLikewise $(1-2h{)}^{x/h}\to e^{-2x}$. The decay selected by boundedness in the linear recurrence relation becomes exactly the decay selected by boundedness in the ordinary differential equation.

Sample the diffusion coefficient at edge midpoints and writeCentered differences of the two fluxes give the conservative finite-difference stencilFor example, the $x$ part isTaylor expansion about $(ih,jh)$ shows that the odd powers cancel between the two face fluxes and that the result equals ${\partial }_x(a{u}_x)+O(h^2)$. The same calculation in $y$ gives total truncation error

Let $h=\Delta x$. A one-dimensional Taylor expansion givesAdding the three coordinate directions shows that the exact solution has stencil defectThis is the local defect of the seven-point Dirichlet Laplacian. Its inverse has max-norm size $O(h^{-2})$: this follows from the discrete maximum principle, for example by comparison with the grid restriction of $x_1(1-x_1)+x_2(1-x_2)+x_3(1-x_3)$, whose stencil is $-6h^2$. Therefore the grid error is $O(h^2)$.

The question writes this error as $O(h^{p+1})$, soIn the more usual terminology, the finite difference method is second-order accurate.

At an interior grid point, the five-point finite difference method givesLetwhere the zero Dirichlet boundary values are already incorporated. Stack the unknowns with the $y$ index varying fastest. Using the Kronecker product, defineThen the semidiscrete equation isMoreover,Thus the directional matrices commute, as in the five-point Dirichlet Laplacian as a Kronecker sum.