The numerical unified transform method for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation on the half-line

Abstract

We implement the numerical unified transform method to solve the nonlinear Schrödinger equation on the half-line. For the so-called linearizable boundary conditions, the method solves the half-line problems with comparable complexity as the numerical inverse scattering transform solves whole-line problems. In particular, the method computes the solution at any x and t without spatial discretization or time stepping. Contour deformations based on the method of nonlinear steepest descent are used so that the method’s computational cost does not increase for large x , t and the method is more accurate as x , t increase. Our ideas also apply to some cases where the boundary conditions are not linearizable.