A Boundary Value Approach to the Numerical Solution of Initial Value Problems by Multistep Methods

A boundary value approach to the numerical solution of initial value problems by means of linear multistep methods is presented. This theory is based on the study of linear difference equations when their general solution is computed by imposing boundary conditions. All the main stability and convergence properties of the obtained methods are investigated and compared to those of the classical multistep methods. Then, as an example, new integration formulas, called extended trapezoidal rules, are derived. For any order they have the same stability properties (in the sense of the definitions given in this paper) of the trapezoidal rule, which is the first method in this class. Some numerical examples are presented to confirm the theoretical expectations and to allow us to trust a future code based on boundary value methods.