In this paper, we investigate the numerical method for the two dimensional time-fractional Zakharov-Kuznetsov equation. By the method of order reduction, the model is first transformed to an equivalent system. A nonlinear difference scheme is then proposed to solve the equivalent model, with min{2, rα}-th order accuracy in time and second-order accuracy in space, where α ∈ (0, 1) is the fractional order and the grading parameter r ≥ 1. The existence of the numerical solution is carefully studied by the renowned Browder fixed point theorem. With the aid of Grönwall inequality and some crucial skills, we analyze the unconditional stability and convergence of the proposed scheme based on the energy method. Finally, numerical experiments are given to illustrate the correctness of our theoretical analysis.
2010 MSC: 65M06, 65M12, 35R11