Alternating group explicit method for the diffusion equation

A new alternating group explicit method is presented for the finite difference solution of the diffusion equation. The new method uses stable asymmetric approximations to the partial differential equation which, when coupled in groups of two adjacent points on the grid, result in implicit equations which can be easily converted to explicit form and which offer many advantages. By judicious alternation of this strategy on the grid points of the domain an algorithm which possesses unconditional stability is obtained. This approach also results in more accurate solutions because of truncation error cancellations. The stability, consistency, convergence and truncation error of the new method are briefly discussed and the results of numerical experiments presented.