Entropy decay of discretized Fokker-Planck equations I - temporal semi-discretization

Abstract

In this paper we study the large time behavior of a fully implicit semi-discretization (in time) of parabolic Fokker-Planck type equations. Using logarithmic Sobolev inequalities exponential decay of the relative entropy (w.r.t. the steady state) is proved which yields convergence of the discrete scheme towards the unique steady state. The exponential decay rate recovers as \Delta t\downarrow0 the decay rate of the original Fokker-Planck type equations.