On the implementation of boundary conditions for the method of lines

The method of lines for difference approximations of hyperbolic first order systems of partial differential equations is analyzed. The approximations are based on strictly semibounded difference operators including high order ones. The formulation of the ODE-system requires that the implementation of the boundary conditions is done carefully. We shall illustrate how different ways of implementation give rise to different stability properties. In particular, we derive a way of implementation that leads to an approximation that is strongly stable. It has been an open problem, whether for semidiscrete approximations with this strong stability property, the timestep for the ODE-solver is governed by the Cauchy problem. We present a counterexample showing that it is not. The analysis presented in this paper also serves as an illustration of the significant difference between different stability concepts.