Abstract
Recently we studied a collocation–quadrature method in weighted spaces as well as in the space of continuous functions for a Volterra-like integral equation of the form where (with a possible singularity at ) and are given (in general complex-valued) functions, and is a fixed parameter. Here, we want to investigate the same method for the case when More precisely, we consider (in general weakly singular) Volterra integral equations of the form where , and is a continuous function, The passage from to and the consideration of more general kernel functions make the studies more involved. Moreover, we enhance the family of interpolation operators defining the approximating operators, and, finally, we ask if, in comparison to collocation–quadrature methods, the application of the Nyström method together with the theory of collectively compact operator sequences is possible.
MSC:
65R20; 45D05; 46N40
1. Introduction
In [], a collocation–quadrature method is studied in weighted spaces as well as in the space of continuous functions for a Volterra-like integral equation of the form
where (with a possible singularity at ) and are given (in general complex-valued) functions, and is a fixed parameter (see [], Section 3.2). Here, we are interested in the numerical solution of Volterra integral equations of the second kind,
where the functions and with are given. In particular, we prefer global polynomials as ansatz functions for the approximating solution and the application of Gaussian rules for the approximation of the integral operator. We do this with the aim not to restrict the convergence rate of the method by taking piecewise polynomials of fixed degree. As a consequence, the convergence rate of the method is only bounded by the smoothness of the given data and
The following result (see Lemma 1) on the solvability of (1) is well known and very special for Volterra integral equations of the above type. The space of continuous functions is denoted by and equipped with the infinity norm , making a Banach space.
Equation (1) is written in operator form as
where and denote the identity and the integral operator
respectively. In particular, the special case of Volterra convolution equations is of interest, where the kernel function of the integral operator is of the form with a given continuous function
Often the kernel function of the integral operator is not continuous but weakly singular along the line of triangle That is why, in what follows, we consider a kernel function of the form with a continuous function or, in case of the convolution equation, of the form (i.e., ) with a continuous function where is a given real number. The respective integral operator is denoted by i.e.,
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: In Section 2 we collect a series of mapping properties of the above-mentioned integral operators in weighted spaces as well as in the space of continuous functions. In Section 3 we describe the collocation–quadrature method, study its stability and convergence, and prove convergence rates for the approximate solutions. In Section 4 we answer the question under which conditions it is possible to apply the famous Nyström method (see, for example, [], Chapter 4, and [], Section 12.2) together with the theory of collectively compact operator sequences to the Volterra integral equations under consideration. We will see that from a theoretical point of view (concerning stability and convergence rates) the collocation–quadrature method outperforms the Nyström method. The present paper concentrates on these theoretical issues. The discussion of computational aspects of the proposed collocation–quadrature method is reserved for forthcoming studies.
2. Mapping Properties of the Involved Integral Operators
From ([], Theorems 3.10 and 10.17), we infer the following Lemma. denotes the closure of the set .
Lemma 1.
If is continuous, then the linear operator is invertible, i.e., for every there exists a unique solution of (6).
In the following we try to extend this result to weighted spaces of continuous functions as well as weighted spaces of square integrable functions. First, we weaken the assumption on the kernel function in Lemma 3. Let denote the Jacobi weight function For we define the space as the set of all continuous functions such that belongs to i.e., for which the finite limits and exist. Equipped with the norm
becomes a Banach space. refers to the closed subspace of of all functions for which
Obviously, the map is an isometric isomorphism. Thus, the operator is invertible if and only if the operator is invertible. Note that
Consequently, a simple conclusion of Lemma 1 is the following corollary:
Corollary 1.
If and the function is continuous, then for every Equation (6) has a unique solution
We continue to discuss the unique solvability in In comparison to the previous corollary, in the following lemma we weaken the condition on the kernel function part In what follows we assume that there are non-negative numbers such that the following condition (A) is fulfilled:
- (A)
- The function is continuous.
Lemma 2.
Let condition (A) be satisfied, and take such that and Moreover, assume that
Then, for (6) has only the trivial solution in
Proof.
where, using the substitution
With we have, for
By induction we prove that, for
where the constant does not depend on and Of course, this is true for with due to (8). Let (9) be true for some Then, using (8) again, we get
Let be a solution of the homogeneous equation Then, u is also a solution of , and, again by induction, we can prove
We send n to infinity in (11) and conclude that for all □
For refers to the Hilbert space of all with respect to the Jacobi weight square integrable functions on the interval equipped with the inner product
and the norm
In what follows, denotes a generic positive constant, which can assume different values in different places. Moreover, indicates that does not depend on Let denote the value
Lemma 3.
Assume that is continuous. Then, for and the operator is compact.
Proof.
Let and Then, using the substitution
where the constant does not depend on Now, for we can estimate
We estimate these three terms separately. Firstly, we have
where, taking into account
Hence,
Secondly, let Then, there is an such that for all with Thus, for
Consequently,
Finally, we refer to the inequality (see [], Chapter 1 (5.2))
and obtain
with if In case of , we choose such that and Then, using the equality
we get
Corollary 2.
If condition (A) is valid, then the operator is compact if
Proof.
We can write where
and The mappings and are isometrical isomorphisms, and from Lemma 3, the operator is compact. Hence,
is compact. □
3. A Collocation–Quadrature Method for Equation (6)
3.1. The Method
We proceed with proposing a collocation–quadrature method for the numerical solution of the integral Equation (6). Note that the integral operator in this equation can be written in the form
To define an approximation of this operator, we use the Gaussian rule
with the error term where denotes the kth zero of the nth orthonormal polynomial with respect to the weight function and is the respective Christoffel number
refers to the polynomial interpolation operator associated with the nodes i.e.,
for every function Let refer to the set of continuous functions . Writing and applying the quadrature rule (18) to (17), we define the quadrature operator as
As a possible approximation of the operator , we take the composed operator where denotes the orthonormal projector
and refers to the linear space of all algebraic polynomials of degree less than In other words, we are looking for an approximate solution of (6) by trying to solve the following equation:
where is an approximation of f satisfying For example, if then we can choose (under certain conditions, see [] Lemma 15 as well as the beginning of Section 3.2) In that case, (21) is equivalent to
From the definition (20) of the operator , we have
Due to the algebraic accuracy of the Gaussian rule (18), for we get
Using this relation, we can try to extend the operator using linearity to a linear and bounded operator
For this we need the boundedness of the operator i.e., the existence of a constant such that
To find out under which conditions of the involved parameters we can guarantee the existence of such a constant, we assume that satisfies condition (A) and estimate for and
3.2. Stability and Convergence
Analogously to and we define the sets and by replacing the space of continuous functions with the set of all functions being bounded and Riemann-integrable on each closed subinterval of the interval Moreover, for we set
Note that
Let us recall the following lemma ([], Lemma 15):
Lemma 4.
Let and Then we have, for
if
and if
From Lemma 4 we infer that
if
Since pointwise convergence becomes uniform on each compact subset, the compactness of the operator (see Corollary 2) implies the norm convergence
if condition (25) is fulfilled for and For the proof of the next proposition, we need the following lemma (see [], Lemma 16).
Lemma 5.
Let and be satisfied. If the function
is continuous, then
Now, let us prove a first result on the stability and the convergence of the collocation–quadrature method (21). We have the following proposition:
Proposition 1.
Assume that the function satisfies condition (A) with
Let and with Furthermore, assume that
and
Proof.
Due to the last two inequalities in (27), the space is continuously embedded in Hence, from Corollary 2 (see the conditions in (28)), we infer that the operator is compact.
Let be a solution of the homogeneous equation Then, due to Corollary 2, belongs to and is identically zero due to Lemma 2 (see the first two conditions in (27)). Thus, the operator has a trivial null space. This, together with the compactness of and the Fredholm alternative, leads to the invertibility of the operator Thus, Equation (6) has a unique solution
Due to our assumptions we can use definition (22) of the operator (see (23) with (29) as well as the second and third inequalities in (27)). For every we have
where due to (24) (see (25) with (27), (30)), and the Banach–Steinhaus theorem. Now, we are going to prove that, for all
For this, we again use the definition (22) of the operator and obtain, for every
where we have taken into account the estimate (note that due to (28) and (30))
Together with (26) we obtain
(Here and in what follows, denotes the norm of the linear and bounded operator defined on the Banach space and mapping into the Banach space ) Now, a Neumann series argument shows that, for all sufficiently large n (say ), the operators are invertible and their inverses are uniformly bounded, i.e.,
which means that the method is stable.
In the following corollary we reformulate Proposition 1 for the case of and
Corollary 3.
Assume that the function is continuous. Let and with Assume that and Then, for all sufficiently large the collocation–quadrature equation
has a unique solution tending to the unique solution of Equation (6) in the norm of the space if n tends to infinity.
3.3. Convergence Rates
To prove convergence rates we recall some estimates for the interpolation error. For this, we define the space of all functions which are times differentiable, and the -th derivative is absolutely continuous on denotes the usual space on the interval , For and all we have (see [] (3.2.63))
if and only if
where For we define the space
where is the set of all absolutely continuous functions In the case and for and all we get
if and only if
We will restrict ourselves to the case and such that condition (40) is satisfied. Nevertheless, with the help of (39), analogous but more involved considerations are possible if and/or Thus, we assume that the conditions of Corollary 3 are in force. Then, due to (35) and (36),
Let us check which further conditions on the given data and are suitable to obtain convergence rates from estimate (41).
- 1.
- 2.
- This can be guaranteed if, for example, the functionis continuous, and
- (a)
- (b)
- and (i.e., and ),
or- (c)
- and
or- (d)
- and
- 3.
Let us summarize the considerations in items 1 to 3 in the following proposition.
Proposition 2.
Assume that the conditions of Corollary 3 are valid. Let and denote the solutions of (6) and (37), respectively. Moreover, let and , and let the conditions (43) and (44) be fulfilled. Then, there is a constant such that
if one of conditions 2.(a)–2.(d) and one of conditions 3.(a)–3.(b) are additionally satisfied by the given data.
We see that the case where (not prohibited in Corollary 3) does not fit the conditions of Proposition 2. That is why we consider that case separately. We assume which implies (see Lemma 1). Let and estimate
where, with the notation
Hence, if we assume that the function is uniformly Hölder-continuous in x with exponent with respect to i.e.,
then we have
where denotes the space of Hölder-continuous functions on (with Hölder exponent ).
For a function g satisfying for a Jacobi weight function and some we introduce the main part of the weighted modulus of smoothness:
where, for
Let us recall the relation (see [], Theorem 3.1)
which is true if and only if
Note that, when condition (48) is equivalent to
Corollary 4.
Proof.
Due to the above considerations and our assumptions, we have Consequently, which follows directly from the definition of using When and , condition (49) is satisfied, so that from (47) we can infer
The same convergence rate is obtained for the first addend on the right-hand side of (41) since and are assumed.
It remains to estimate the second addend. For this, set Moreover, let and Then, from (22),
Since the solution is a continuous function, we have
if From (38) we conclude
if and Thus, we have to show that and can be chosen in such a way that the norm can be bounded by a constant
We choose and so that and This is possible, since and The inequalities and ensure that and can be chosen in such a way that and Furthermore, we have
and
Finally, since
and we have which finishes the proof of the corollary. □
3.4. Uniform Convergence
In the previous sections, the studies were restricted to the case where The reason for this is the respective condition in Lemma 3, which is important for the proof of the stability of the collocation–quadrature method in the space (see the proof of Proposition 1). As one can see from Corollary 5, under certain conditions the operator is compact for That is why we studied the collocation–quadrature method (37) in the space, which allowed us to prove convergence rates in the infinity norm.
If and are two positive functions depending on certain parameters then we use the notion if there is a positive constant such that Let us recall the following classical result on the Lebesgue constant being the norm of the interpolation operator in the space.
Lemma 6
([], Theorem 14.4, p. 335). For all we have
Note that, for and every ,
Hence,
where denotes the best approximation of f by polynomials in the infinity norm,
We remember the following inequality (see [], (2.5.22)):
which is true for all satisfying and is a consequence of the iterated Favard inequality
with In what follows we will assume that, for some
- (D)
- the functions are continuous.
If and then one can see by induction and
that belongs to if Moreover, there is a constant such that, for all and all
For example, for and we can take
If we define the weighted modulus of smoothness as
where if then the following Lemma is true (see [], Theorem 7.2.19):
Lemma 7.
For and
In the following lemma we estimate the norm of the linear operator for certain constellations of the parameters and
Lemma 8.
Let satisfy condition (D) and Then, for all and
where
- (a)
- if and
- (b)
- if or and
- (c)
- if and
- (d)
- if and
Proof.
Note that we can use definition (22) for the operator without further conditions like (23) in case of the space. As in (50) we have, for and
where and
If and then holds uniformly with respect to With and in (56), we obtain, due to (39),
and (a) is proven.
If is a non-negative integer, and then with a continuous function We choose such that and which is possible because of Furthermore, we can choose such that (i.e., ) and which is possible since Finally, we have due to Consequently, from (38) we can infer
to obtain assertion (b).
If for some and then where
From this we obtain
Indeed, from the mean value theorem, we have
where Hence,
with as well as Consequently, Since we obtain by induction
for some This leads to
from which (57) follows.
Now, choose a large enough such that and This is possible, since and Applying (47) yields
and the proof of (c) is finished.
Assertion (d) can be proved analogously to (c). □
Proposition 3.
Assume that and that, for some the kernel function fulfills condition (D). Furthermore, assume that the right-hand side of (6) belongs to Moreover, let be chosen in such a way that one of the conditions (a)–(d) of Lemma 8 and the condition
with ρ defined in Lemma 8 are satisfied. Then, for all sufficiently large the collocation–quadrature Equation (37) has a unique solution which converges in the infinity norm to the unique solution of (6), where, for
with a constant
Proof.
The unique solvability of (6) in is guaranteed by Lemma 1. Now, our aim is to estimate
For the second addend on the right-hand side, we can use Lemma 6 and Lemma 8, while for the first addend we take into account and for all and (see (55)). Hence, due to (51) and (52),
Proposition 4.
Let and condition (D) be satisfied, where
for a certain number Moreover, let with Assume that the parameters fulfill one of the conditions (a)–(d) as well as condition (58). Then, for all sufficiently large the collocation–quadrature Equation (37) has a unique solution which converges in the infinity norm to the unique solution of (6), where, for
with and a constant
Proof.
where we took into account that, for
We can proceed as in the proof for the previous proposition. We only have to check the estimate of Since from the proof of (46), we can infer where
This leads to
Analogously, we get Thus, as at the end of the proof of Proposition 3,
and the proposition is proved. □
4. What About the Nyström Method?
In different papers the Nyström method was studied for Volterra integral equations (see, for example, [,,,,,] for linear equations and [,] for nonlinear equations).
Let us use the interpolation operator to construct a Nyström approximation for the solution of (6) based on a product integration rule, namely, (cf. [], (6),(7))
with
With the aim of studying the Nyström method for Equation (6) in the weighted space of continuous functions, we multiply equation
by collocate at the points and take as the unknowns. This results in the following system:
where Note that we obtain the same system (65) if we consider equation
(see (7)) in the space of continuous functions on and approximate the operator
by
That is why we will study (63) in the space assuming that is a continuous function.
We refer to the notation in ([], Chapter 6) and consider an operator
with
where is a fixed real number. For a function and we use the following notations (cf. the beginning of Section 2):
Let us consider conditions (K1)–(K4) in ([], p. 356) (cf. also []). The first condition is
We estimate
where (also hereafter) and Note that, for and all the integral
is finite if and only if
Let us turn to the second condition:
Let Then,
For the second term we get
where, for
if and only if
Finally, we estimate the third term and obtain
where, for and
(see also (15)) for if For we choose such that and again use the relation (15) to obtain
if
and is small enough.
Note that (K1) and (K2) are necessary and sufficient for to be a compact operator (see [], Proposition 5.3.2). Thus, by using (69), (71), (72), and (73), we obtain the following corollary:
Corollary 5.
The operator is compact if one of the following conditions is satisfied:
- (A)
- There exist numbers such thatand, for all
- (B)
- There exist numbers and such that, forand, for all
The following two conditions (K3) and (K4) concern the question as to whether the operators form a collectively compact and strongly converging operator sequence. In particular, the following lemma is true (see [], Lemma 6.1.1, cf. also [], Section 2, Lemma and [], Section 3, Theorem 1).
Lemma 9.
Suppose that the conditions (K1) and (K2) are in force. Then, the operators are collectively compact and strongly convergent to if and only if the conditions (K3) and (K4) below are satisfied.
Remembering the definition of (see (63)), we consider the third condition:
To obtain conditions under which (74) is fulfilled, we estimate
where, for some and all the integral
is finite if and only if (compare with (69))
Moreover, we have to find conditions under which
is true for all and for some Let us restrict to and try to apply Lemma 4. If we set
we can replace condition (76) with
Applying Lemma 4 when , we obtain the conditions
and, for some and all
Let us turn to the last condition:
We represent in the form
where with
and
as well as
Let and With the help of Lemma 4, we have
for all and For fixed with and define
and equip the space with the norm It is easy to see that
such that the Banach–Steinhaus theorem (principle of uniform boundedness), together with (81) implies, for all
Considering as a linear map from into the dual space of and again applying the principle of uniform boundedness to (82), we get
Together with (82), this implies
We conclude
From the estimate of the terms and above (cf. (71) and (73)), we infer that, for
where if and (with some sufficiently small ) if supposing that and (Note that it is possible to weaken the conditions on the parameters if we use a respective weighted -space, instead of the space ) Relation (84) implies
if the conditions on the parameters are fulfilled. The most critical question is under which conditions the limit relation
is true. Let us assume that the function
is continuous. Since, for
we get
i.e., we can obtain (86) only if
As an example, let us consider the situation where the function is continuous, and we choose Then condition (A) of Corollary 5 is satisfied for Also, (76) and (85) hold true. Note that (85) was above proven for But, as already mentioned in the brackets after (85), this condition can be weakened to in the present situation. Thus, to be able to apply the theory of collectively compact operator sequences, due to (87), we have to assume that for all
If is the solution of (65) (when ) and
is the respective Nyström interpolant, then we have the error estimate (see [], Theorem 10.9)
In order to obtain the convergence rates from this estimate, it is necessary to assume smoothness properties of the function
while for the collocation–quadrature method studied in Section 3, only smoothness properties of the function
are needed (see condition (D)).
5. Conclusions
From a theoretical point of view, concerning stability and convergence, the collocation– quadrature method is better than the Nyström method, since the latter requires additional conditions on the kernel function (see (87)). But, at first glance the collocation–quadrature method is more expensive (i.e., has a higher computational complexity) than the Nyström method. The speed (and cost) of the collocation–quadrature method must be examined in future studies.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Data Availability Statement
The original contributions presented in this study are included in this article. Further inquiries can be directed to the author.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
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