Mathematical and numerical analysis of the time-dependent Maxwell--Schrödinger Equations in the Coulomb gauge

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the initial-boundary value problem for the time-dependent Maxwell--Schrödinger equations in the Coulomb gauge. We first prove the global existence of weak solutions to the equations. Next we propose an energy-conserving fully discrete finite element scheme for the system and prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions to the discrete system. The optimal error estimates for the numerical scheme without any time-step restrictions are then derived. Numerical results are provided to support our theoretical analysis.