Extended Lagrangian approach for the defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation

Abstract

Abstract We study the defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation written in hydrodynamic form through the Madelung transform. From the mathematical point of view, the hydrodynamic form can be seen as the Euler–Lagrange equations for a Lagrangian submitted to a differential constraint corresponding to the mass conservation law. The dispersive nature of the NLS equation poses some major numerical challenges. The idea is to introduce a two‐parameter family of extended Lagrangians, depending on a greater number of variables, whose Euler–Lagrange equations are hyperbolic and accurately approximate NLS equation in a certain limit. The corresponding hyperbolic equations are studied and solved numerically using Godunov‐type methods. Comparison of exact and asymptotic solutions to the one‐dimensional cubic NLS equation (“gray” solitons and dispersive shocks) and the corresponding numerical solutions to the extended system was performed. A very good accuracy of such a hyperbolic approximation was observed.