Backward error analysis for matrix discretizations of 2-D Euler equations

We introduce a formalism of Lie–Poisson reduction of Butcher series. The corresponding forest momentum map allows for describing backward error analysis of isospectral symplectic Runge–Kutta methods applied to Zeitlin’s matrix discretization of the 2-D Euler equations on the sphere. Based thereon, we obtain exponentially small error bounds for the conservation of modified Hamiltonians, valid for exponentially long time intervals. Crucially, the error bounds and the length of the time intervals are independent of the spatial discretization parameter $n$ (the matrix size) when the time step for different $n$ is scaled as $h=\mathcal{O}(n^{-1})$. Our results thus extend the classical backward error analysis result for finite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems to the infinite-dimensional case of the 2-D Euler equations discretized via matrix hydrodynamics.