Stability of collocation-based Runge-Kutta-Nyström methods

We analyse the attainable order and the stability of Runge-Kutta-Nyström (RKN) methods for special second-order initial-value problems derived by collocation techniques. Like collocation methods for first-order equations the step point order ofs-stage methods can be raised to 2s for alls. The attainable stage order is one higher and equalss+1. However, the stability results derived in this paper show that we have to pay a high price for the increased stage order.These investigations were supported by the University of Amsterdam who provided the third author with a research grant for spending a total of two years in Amsterdam.