Robertson chemical kinetics
ADVANTAGES3 · dim 3SolvSRK wins. At the comparison noise level, SolvSRK beats the best baseline by at least 10 percentage points of survival, or by at least 0.05 balanced score when survival is tied. Use SolvSRK for this class of problem. All verdicts →
The canonical stiff-chemistry benchmark: three autocatalytic species whose rate constants span eleven orders of magnitude. Clean completion is table stakes for implicit methods; the real differentiator is holding up when the right-hand side is perturbed by noise.
Problem definition
Robertson (1966); Hairer–Wanner II §IV.1
Math used in the published benchmark cell - so you can confirm the name matches the ODE you expect. Not a runnable fixture.
ẏ₁ = −k₁ y₁ + k₂ y₂ y₃ ẏ₂ = k₁ y₁ − k₂ y₂ y₃ − k₃ y₂² ẏ₃ = k₃ y₂²
- Parameters
- k₁ = 0.04
- k₂ = 10⁴
- k₃ = 3×10⁷
- Initial condition
- y(0) = (1, 0, 0)
- Horizon
- t ∈ [0, 10⁵]
Classical ROBER rates. Horizon is 10⁵ (not the Hairer 10¹¹ extended endpoint used by a separate catalog variant).
Fingerprint
Spread: extreme
Default noise: clean
Recommendation snapshot
Clean best: SolvSRK (parity with implicit SciPy)
Noisy best: SolvSRK
Coverage
14 solver arms · clean + 5 noise levels
Ranked on survival, precision, and speed
Versions & freeze
Methodology →- Freeze
- 2026-08-13
- libsolvsrk
- 2.3.0
- SciPy
- 1.14
- SUNDIALS
- CVODE (bundled backend)
20 seeds/cell default · 14 arms · TRL 4–5 · simulation-lab validated · this page: Robertson chemical kinetics (robertson)
Governed SolvTune benchmark freeze; per-arm medians only. RHS definitions and raw trial rows are not published.
Self-reported by Resonix Labs · not independently verified
Results matrix
Pick an objective and a noise level to rank all arms on survival, median SCD, median nfev, and median wall time. Medians across seeds.
Objective
Best overall trade-off of survival, precision, and speed.
Noise level
| # | Solver | Survival | SCD | nfev | Wall | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SolvSRK | 100% | 12.6 | 106,041 | 288 ms | 0.918 |
| 2 | SciPy RadauSciPy | 100% | 10.5 | 2,503 | 49 ms | 0.869 |
| 3 | CVODE BDFexternal | 100% | 7.8 | 1,263 | 15 ms | 0.804 |
| 4 | SciPy BDFSciPy | 100% | 7.5 | 1,382 | 39 ms | 0.798 |
| 5 | SciPy LSODASciPy | 100% | 7.4 | 1,022 | 5 ms | 0.795 |
| 6 | CVODE Adamsexternal | 100% | 2.5 | 621,648 | 4.89 s | 0.679 |
| - | SciPy RK45SciPy | 0% | - | - | - | - |
| - | SciPy DOP853SciPy | 0% | - | - | - | - |
| - | SciPy RK23SciPy | 0% | - | - | - | - |
| - | Tsit5external | 0% | - | - | - | - |
At Clean, best balanced arm is SolvSRK.
Values are medians across seeds, measured by Resonix Labs on Resonix hardware and not independently verified; nfev and wall are on reference lab hardware (indicative). Under injected noise only SolvSRK and the SciPy arms are run. How we measure accuracy → · Verification status →
Cite this page
Replace the access date. Pin the freeze ID and library versions when comparing against a later export. Cite it as what it is - a self-reported vendor benchmark, not an independently verified result. The note field says so; please keep it.
@misc{resonix_evidence_robertson_2026,
title = {Resonix Evidence Portal: Robertson chemical kinetics},
author = {{Resonix Labs (Canada) Inc.}},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://resonixusa.com/evidence/problems/robertson}},
note = {Self-reported vendor benchmark; internally generated by Resonix Labs and not independently verified. Accessed YYYY-MM-DD. Freeze 2026-08-13; libsolvsrk 2.3.0; SciPy 1.14.}
}Related
TRL 4–5 · simulation-lab validated · 398 problems · 14 solver arms · clean + 5 noise levels
Freeze: 2026-08-13 · scipy 1.14 · libsolvsrk 2.3.0 · Methodology
Self-reported by Resonix Labs · not independently verified · Verification status