Eigenstructure-preserving scheme for a hyperbolic system

Abstract

A hyperbolic system must have a set of linearly independent eigenvectors and corresponding real eigenvalues. In numerical simulations, however, the eigenvalues can be complex because truncation errors pollute a characteristic polynomial of the hyperbolic system. Here we propose an eigenstructure-preserving scheme which always generates the real eigenvalues, even in discrete level. Although the eigenstructure is discussed in a non-conservative formulation, the proposed scheme is locally conservative owing to the skew-symmetric operators.