On symplectic and multisymplectic schemes for the KdV equation

We examine some symplectic and multisymplectic methods for the notorious Korteweg-de Vries equation, with the question whether the added structure preservation that these methods offer is key in providing high quality schemes for the long time integration of nonlinear, conservative partial differential equations. Concentrating on second order discretizations, several interesting schemes are constructed and studied. Our essential conclusions are that it is possible to design very stable, conservative difference schemes for the nonlinear, conservative KdV equation. Among the best of such schemes are methods which are symplectic or multisymplectic. Semi-explicit, symplectic schemes can be very effective in many situations. Compact box schemes are effective in ensuring that no artificial wiggles appear in the approximate solution. A family of box schemes is constructed, of which the multisymplectic box scheme is a prominent member, which are particularly stable on coarse space-time grids.