Robust consistent a posteriori error majorants for approximate solutions of diffusion-reaction equations

Abstract

Efficiency of the error control of numerical solutions of partial differential equations entirely depends on the two factors: accuracy of an a posteriori error majorant and the computational cost of its evaluation for some test function/vector-function plus the cost of the latter. In the paper, consistency of an a posteriori bound implies that it is the same in the order with the respective unimprovable a priori bound. Therefore, it is the basic characteristic related to the first factor. The paper is dedicated to the elliptic diffusion-reaction equations. We present a guaranteed robust a posteriori error majorant effective at any nonnegative constant reaction coefficient (r.c.). For a wide range of finite element solutions on a quasiuniform meshes the majorant is consistent. For big values of r.c. the majorant coincides with the majorant of Aubin (1972), which, as it is known, for not big r.c. ($<ch^{-2}$) is inconsistent and loses its sense at r.c. approaching zero. Our majorant improves also some other majorants derived for the Poisson and reaction-diffusion equations.