On modified Runge-Kutta trees and methods

Modified Runge-Kutta (mRK) methods can have interesting properties as their coefficients may depend on the step length. By a simple perturbation of very few coefficients we may produce various function-fitted methods and avoid the overload of evaluating all the coefficients in every step. It is known that, for Runge-Kutta methods, each order condition corresponds to a rooted tree. When we expand this theory to the case of mRK methods, some of the rooted trees produce additional trees, called mRK rooted trees, and so additional conditions of order. In this work we present the relative theory including a theorem for the generating function of these additional mRK trees and explain the procedure to determine the extra algebraic equations of condition generated for a major subcategory of these methods. Moreover, efficient symbolic codes are provided for the enumeration of the trees and the generation of the additional order conditions. Finally, phase-lag and phase-fitted properties are analyzed for this case and specific phase-fitted pairs of orders 8(6) and 6(5) are presented and tested. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.