An equilibrated a posteriori error estimator for arbitrary-order N\'ed\'elec elements for magnetostatic problems

Abstract

We present a novel \textit{a posteriori} error estimator for N\'ed\'elec elements for magnetostatic problems that is constant-free, i.e. it provides an upper bound on the error that does not involve a generic constant. The estimator is based on equilibration of the magnetic field and only involves small local problems that can be solved in parallel. Such an error estimator is already available for the lowest-degree N\'ed\'elec element [D. Braess, J. Sch\"oberl, \textit{Equilibrated residual error estimator for edge elements}, Math. Comp. 77 (2008)] and requires solving local problems on vertex patches. The novelty of our estimator is that it can be applied to N\'ed\'elec elements of arbitrary degree. Furthermore, our estimator does not require solving problems on vertex patches, but instead requires solving problems on only single elements, single faces, and very small sets of nodes. We prove reliability and efficiency of the estimator and present several numerical examples that confirm this.