Geometric properties of Kahan's method

We show that Kahan's discretization of quadratic vector fields is equivalent to a Runge–Kutta method. When the vector field is Hamiltonian on either a symplectic vector space or a Poisson vector space with constant Poisson structure, the map determined by this discretization has a conserved modified Hamiltonian and an invariant measure, a combination previously unknown amongst Runge–Kutta methods applied to nonlinear vector fields. This produces large classes of integrable rational mappings in two and three dimensions, explaining some of the integrable cases that were previously known. (paper)