A linear dispersive mechanism for numerical error growth: spurious caustics

Spurious caustics of Dispersion Relation Preserving schemes

A linear dispersive mechanism leading to a burst in the $L_\infty$ norm of the error in numerical simulation of polychromatic solutions is identified. This local error pile-up corresponds to the existence of spurious caustics, which are allowed by the dispersive nature of the numerical error. From the mathematical point of view, spurious caustics are related to extrema of the numerical group velocity and are physically associated to interactions between rays defined by the characteristic lines of the discrete system. This paper extends our previous work about classical schemes to dispersion-re…