Asymptotic preserving Implicit-Explicit Runge-Kutta methods for non linear kinetic equations

TL;DR

This paper develops and analyzes asymptotic preserving IMEX Runge-Kutta methods tailored for stiff kinetic equations, including Boltzmann equations, ensuring efficiency and accuracy across different regimes.

Contribution

It introduces penalized IMEX schemes for Boltzmann equations that are uniformly effective without costly implicit collision resolution.

Findings

Methods are asymptotic preserving and accurate.

Penalized schemes work uniformly across relaxation times.

Numerical results confirm theoretical properties.

Abstract

We discuss Implicit-Explicit (IMEX) Runge Kutta methods which are particularly adapted to stiff kinetic equations of Boltzmann type. We consider both the case of easy invertible collision operators and the challenging case of Boltzmann collision operators. We give sufficient conditions in order that such methods are asymptotic preserving and asymptotically accurate. Their monotonicity properties are also studied. In the case of the Boltzmann operator, the methods are based on the introduction of a penalization technique for the collision integral. This reformulation of the collision operator permits to construct penalized IMEX schemes which work uniformly for a wide range of relaxation times avoiding the expensive implicit resolution of the collision operator. Finally we show some numerical results which confirm the theoretical analysis.