Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Convergence Analysis of Lie and Strang Splitting for Operator-Valued Differential Riccati Equations

Hansen, Eskil LU orcid ; Stillfjord, Tony LU orcid and Åberg, Teodor LU (2026) In SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis 64(3). p.957-988
Abstract
Differential Riccati equations (DREs) are semilinear matrix- or operator-valued differential equations with quadratic nonlinearities. They arise in many different areas, and are particularly important in optimal control of linear quadratic regulators, where they provide the optimal feedback control laws. In the context of control of partial differential equations, these Riccati equations are operator-valued. To approximate their solutions, both spatial and temporal discretizations are needed. While the former have been well analyzed in the literature, there are very few rigorous convergence analyses of time stepping methods applied to DREs, particularly in the infinite-dimensional, operator-valued setting. In view of this, we analyze two... (More)
Differential Riccati equations (DREs) are semilinear matrix- or operator-valued differential equations with quadratic nonlinearities. They arise in many different areas, and are particularly important in optimal control of linear quadratic regulators, where they provide the optimal feedback control laws. In the context of control of partial differential equations, these Riccati equations are operator-valued. To approximate their solutions, both spatial and temporal discretizations are needed. While the former have been well analyzed in the literature, there are very few rigorous convergence analyses of time stepping methods applied to DREs, particularly in the infinite-dimensional, operator-valued setting. In view of this, we analyze two numerical time-stepping schemes, the Lie and Strang splitting methods, in such a setting. The analysis relies on the assumption that the uncontrolled system is parabolic and that either the initial condition is sufficiently smooth, or the nonlinearity in the DRE is sufficiently smoothing. These assumptions are mild, in the sense that they are not enough to even guarantee continuity in the operator norm of the exact solution to the DRE. However, they imply certain regularity in a pointwise sense, which can be leveraged to prove convergence in the operator norm with the classical orders. The results are illustrated by four numerical experiments, where convergence with the expected order is correlated with the relevant assumptions being fulfilled. The experiments also demonstrate that matrix-valued DREs which arise as spatial discretizations of operator-valued DREs behave similarly, unless the discretization is coarse. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Differential Riccati equations (DREs) are semilinear matrix- or operator-valued differential equations with quadratic nonlinearities. They arise in many different areas, and are particularly important in optimal control of linear quadratic regulators, where they provide the optimal feedback control laws. In the context of control of partial differential equations, these Riccati equations are operator-valued. To approximate their solutions, both spatial and temporal discretizations are needed. While the former have been well analyzed in the literature, there are very few rigorous convergence analyses of time stepping methods applied to DREs, particularly in the infinite-dimensional, operator-valued setting. In view of this, we analyze two... (More)
Differential Riccati equations (DREs) are semilinear matrix- or operator-valued differential equations with quadratic nonlinearities. They arise in many different areas, and are particularly important in optimal control of linear quadratic regulators, where they provide the optimal feedback control laws. In the context of control of partial differential equations, these Riccati equations are operator-valued. To approximate their solutions, both spatial and temporal discretizations are needed. While the former have been well analyzed in the literature, there are very few rigorous convergence analyses of time stepping methods applied to DREs, particularly in the infinite-dimensional, operator-valued setting. In view of this, we analyze two numerical time-stepping schemes, the Lie and Strang splitting methods, in such a setting. The analysis relies on the assumption that the uncontrolled system is parabolic and that either the initial condition is sufficiently smooth, or the nonlinearity in the DRE is sufficiently smoothing. These assumptions are mild, in the sense that they are not enough to even guarantee continuity in the operator norm of the exact solution to the DRE. However, they imply certain regularity in a pointwise sense, which can be leveraged to prove convergence in the operator norm with the classical orders. The results are illustrated by four numerical experiments, where convergence with the expected order is correlated with the relevant assumptions being fulfilled. The experiments also demonstrate that matrix-valued DREs which arise as spatial discretizations of operator-valued DREs behave similarly, unless the discretization is coarse. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
differentiella Riccati-ekvationer, operator-värda, splitting-metoder, konvergensanalys, differential Riccati equations, operator-valued, splitting schemes, convergence analysis
in
SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis
volume
64
issue
3
pages
32 pages
publisher
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
external identifiers
  • scopus:105044559408
ISSN
0036-1429
DOI
10.1137/25M1754406
project
Numerical methods for differential Riccati equations
Moving domain decomposition methods for parabolic PDEs
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ec8a493f-060f-4558-892c-cacb178f3ad0
alternative location
https://doi.org/10.1137/25M1754406
date added to LUP
2026-06-23 11:51:17
date last changed
2026-09-08 13:10:19
@article{ec8a493f-060f-4558-892c-cacb178f3ad0,
  abstract     = {{Differential Riccati equations (DREs) are semilinear matrix- or operator-valued differential equations with quadratic nonlinearities. They arise in many different areas, and are particularly important in optimal control of linear quadratic regulators, where they provide the optimal feedback control laws. In the context of control of partial differential equations, these Riccati equations are operator-valued. To approximate their solutions, both spatial and temporal discretizations are needed. While the former have been well analyzed in the literature, there are very few rigorous convergence analyses of time stepping methods applied to DREs, particularly in the infinite-dimensional, operator-valued setting. In view of this, we analyze two numerical time-stepping schemes, the Lie and Strang splitting methods, in such a setting. The analysis relies on the assumption that the uncontrolled system is parabolic and that either the initial condition is sufficiently smooth, or the nonlinearity in the DRE is sufficiently smoothing. These assumptions are mild, in the sense that they are not enough to even guarantee continuity in the operator norm of the exact solution to the DRE. However, they imply certain regularity in a pointwise sense, which can be leveraged to prove convergence in the operator norm with the classical orders. The results are illustrated by four numerical experiments, where convergence with the expected order is correlated with the relevant assumptions being fulfilled. The experiments also demonstrate that matrix-valued DREs which arise as spatial discretizations of operator-valued DREs behave similarly, unless the discretization is coarse.}},
  author       = {{Hansen, Eskil and Stillfjord, Tony and Åberg, Teodor}},
  issn         = {{0036-1429}},
  keywords     = {{differentiella Riccati-ekvationer; operator-värda; splitting-metoder; konvergensanalys; differential Riccati equations; operator-valued; splitting schemes; convergence analysis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{957--988}},
  publisher    = {{Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics}},
  series       = {{SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis}},
  title        = {{Convergence Analysis of Lie and Strang Splitting for Operator-Valued Differential Riccati Equations}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/253632546/HansenStillfjordAaberg2026.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1137/25M1754406}},
  volume       = {{64}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}