Control theory and splitting methods
For researchers in numerical analysis and control theory, this work provides a unified framework and new theoretical results on splitting methods, though it is primarily theoretical and incremental in nature.
The paper establishes deep connections between numerical splitting methods and control theory, showing that splitting methods can be interpreted as trajectories of control-affine systems. It proves the existence of arbitrary-order schemes with complex coefficients and links order restrictions for real coefficients to 'bad' Lie brackets that obstruct controllability.
Our goal is to highlight some deep connections between numerical splitting methods and control theory. We consider evolution equations of the form $\dot{x} = f_0(x) + f_1(x)$, where $f_0$ encodes non-reversible dynamics, motivating schemes that involve only forward flows of $f_0$. In this context, a splitting method can be interpreted as a trajectory of the control-affine system $\dot{x}(t)=f_0(x(t))+u(t)f_1(x(t))$, associated with a control $u$ that is a finite sum of Dirac masses. The goal is then to find a control such that the flow generated by $f_0 + u(t)f_1$ is as close as possible to the flow of $f_0+f_1$. Using this interpretation and classical tools from control theory, we revisit well-known results on numerical splitting methods and prove several new ones. First, we show that there exist numerical schemes of arbitrary order involving only forward flows of $f_0$, provided one allows complex coefficients for $f_1$. Equivalently, for complex-valued controls, we prove that the Lie algebra rank condition is equivalent to small-time local controllability. Second, for real-valued coefficients, we show that the well-known order restrictions are linked to so-called "bad" Lie brackets from control theory, which are known to obstruct small-time local controllability. We investigate the conditions under which high-order methods exist, thanks to a basis of the free Lie algebra that we recently constructed.