Programming with Chebfun. Case study: Richards equation

Mathematics > Numerical Analysis [Submitted on 16 Jun 2026] Title:Programming with Chebfun. Case study: Richards equation View PDF HTML (experimental)Abstract:The Chebfun software system is a Matlab extension essentially based on representations of (piece-wise) smooth one-variable functions by expansions in Chebyshev polynomials. One of Chebfun's attractive features is the ability to provide solutions to nonlinear boundary value problems (BVP) with accuracy close to the machine precision. This is done by the chebop class which provides automatic solutions by performing linearizations with a Newton method in function spaces of the nonlinear BVP, automatic differentiation, and using Fast Fourier Transform computations for the coefficients of the Chebyshev polynomials. A drawback of chebop automatic approach is the possible lack of convergence of the Newton method if the initial guess is not close enough to the exact solution. An explicit functional linearization done for each particular shape of the differential operator (i.e. without automatic differentiation) proves to be more robust than the chebop class and allows an enlargement of the range of convergence. Another alternative is the implicit L-scheme (quasi-Newton approach with derivatives replaced by suitable positive constants L), with a much simpler implementation and globally convergent. While chebop is the easiest way to solve the BVP, provided that it converges, the last two approaches largely overcome the convergence issues, yielding accurate solutions to a wide class of steady-state one-dimensional problems governed by Richards' equation. Chebfun2 and Chebfun3, which at the current stage cannot solve BVPs, provide efficient tools for accuracy and convergence assessments of the non-steady solutions in one or two spatial dimensions obtained by classical discretization schemes. Current browse context: math.NA References & Citations Loading... Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Recommenders and Search Tools Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.