Fourth-Order Structure-Preserving Method for the Conservative Allen-Cahn Equation

Abstract

We propose a class of up to fourth-order maximum-principle-preserving and mass-conserving schemes for the conservative Allen-Cahn equation equipped with a non-local Lagrange multiplier. Based on the second-order finite-difference semi-discretization in the spatial direction, the integrating factor Runge-Kutta schemes are applied in the temporal direction. Theoretical analysis indicates that the proposed schemes conserve mass and preserve the maximum principle under reasonable time step-size restriction, which is independent of the space step size. Finally, the theoretical analysis is verified by several numerical examples.