  We consider the numerical solution of large-scale symmetric differential
matrix Riccati equations. Under certain hypotheses on the data, reduced order
methods have recently arisen as a promising class of solution strategies, by
forming low-rank approximations to the sought after solution at selected
timesteps. We show that great computational and memory savings are obtained by
a reduction process onto rational Krylov subspaces, as opposed to current
approaches. By specifically addressing the solution of the reduced differential
equation and reliable stopping criteria, we are able to obtain accurate final
approximations at low memory and computational requirements. This is obtained
by employing a two-phase strategy that separately enhances the accuracy of the
algebraic approximation and the time integration. The new method allows us to
numerically solve much larger problems than in the current literature.
Numerical experiments on benchmark problems illustrate the effectiveness of the
procedure with respect to existing solvers.
