The Linear Rational Pseudospectral Method for Boundary Value Problems

We consider the version of the pseudospectral method for solving boundary value problems which replaces the differential operator with a matrix constructed from the elementary differentiation matrices whose elements are the derivatives of the Lagrange fundamental polynomials at the collocation points. The iterative solution of the resulting system of equations then requires the recurrent application of that differentiation matrix. Since global polynomial interpolation on the interval only gives useful approximants for points which accumulate in the vicinity of the extremities, the matrix is ill-conditioned. To reduce this drawback, we use Kosloff and Tal-Ezer's suggestion to shift the collocation points closer to equidistant by a conformal map. However, instead of applying their change of variable setting, we extend to stationary equations the linear rational collocation method introduced in former work on partial differential equations. Numerically about as efficient, this does not require any new coding if one starts from an efficient program for the polynomial differentiation matrices.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.