Construction and comparison of multidimensional spectral variational integrators and spectral collocation methods

In this paper, we construct numerical schemes for spectral collocation methods and spectral variational integrators which converge geometrically. We present a systematic comparison of how spectral collocation methods and Galerkin spectral variational integrators perform in terms of their ability to reproduce accurate trajectories in configuration and phase space, their ability to conserve momentum and energy, as well as the linear stability of these methods when applied to some classical Hamiltonian systems.