The problem of characterizing multistep methods suitable to efficientl
y approximate the solutions of linear Hamiltonian systems is discussed
, showing that the appropriate methods should belong to the class of d
iscrete Boundary Value Methods (BVMs). Three families of such methods
are proposed. The presented methods have infinite regions of Absolute
stability and can be of any order. In fact, for every odd k there are
k-step methods of order up to 2k, which is the maximum order reachable
by a Ic-step formula. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 1997