An Adjoint-based Numerical Method for a class of nonlinear Fokker-Planck Equations

Abstract

Here, we introduce a numerical approach for a class of Fokker-Planck (FP) equations. These equations are the adjoint of the linearization of Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) equations. Using this structure, we show how to transfer the properties of schemes for HJ equations to the FP equations. Hence, we get numerical schemes with desirable features such as positivity and mass-preservation. We illustrate this approach in examples that include mean-field games and a crowd motion model.