Second-order uniformly accurate method for the semiclassical nonlinear Schrödinger equation with initial data in $${{\text {H}}^2}$$

Abstract This paper studies the numerical solution of the semiclassical nonlinear Schrödinger equation on the d -dimensional torus $$\mathbb {T}^d$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>T</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>d</mml:mi> </mml:msup> </mml:math> , with highly oscillatory initial data depending on a small parameter $$\varepsilon \in (0,1]$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>ε</mml:mi> <mml:mo>∈</mml:mo> <mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mo>]</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . We first show that a WKB-type approximation attains an $$\mathcal {O}(\varepsilon )$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>O</mml:mi> <mml:mo>(</mml:mo> <mml:mi>ε</mml:mi> <mml:mo>)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> error in the $$L^2$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>L</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:math> norm for $$H^2$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>H</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:math> initial data theoretically, although its accuracy deteriorates as $$\varepsilon $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>ε</mml:mi> </mml:math> increases. To address this limitation, we propose a numerical scheme that (i) applies a Galilean transform to remove the oscillations in the initial data, (ii) establishes sharp space–time estimates for the transformed equation, and (iii) employs a new low-regularity integrator to achieve second-order accuracy under the minimal $$H^2$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>H</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:math> regularity, which is weaker than the regularity assumptions in the literature. Furthermore, our analysis shows that the CFL-type conditions linking h , $$\tau $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>τ</mml:mi> </mml:math> , and $$\varepsilon $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>ε</mml:mi> </mml:math> —typically imposed in the semiclassical regime in the literature—are not required in our scheme to obtain second-order convergence with respect to $$\tau $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>τ</mml:mi> </mml:math> and h , uniformly with respect to $$\varepsilon $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>ε</mml:mi> </mml:math> , under the weaker regularity condition. Numerical experiments support the theoretical results and demonstrate the robustness of the method across a wide range of $$\varepsilon $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>ε</mml:mi> </mml:math> .