The Fourier spectral approach to the spatial discretization of quasilinear hyperbolic systems

Abstract: We discuss the rigorous justification of the spatial discretization by means of Fourier spectral methods of quasilinear first-order hyperbolic systems. We provide uniform stability estimates that grant spectral convergence of the (spatially) semi-discretized solutions towards the corresponding continuous solution provided that the underlying system satisfies some suitable structural assumptions. We consider a setting with sharp low-pass filters and a setting with smooth low-pass filters and argue that - at least theoretically - smooth low-pass filters are operable on a larger class of systems. While our theoretical results are supported with numerical evidence, we also pinpoint some behavior of the numerical method that currently has no theoretical explanation.