Discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods for a forward-backward heat equation (Q1294497)

The paper deals with the following problem: given \(f(x,t)\), find \(u(x,t)\) satisfying the differential equation (1) \(xu_t- u_{xx}= f\) for \(-1< x< 1\), \(0< t< 1\) together with the boundary conditions (2) \(u(-1, t)= u(1,t)= 0\) and the initial/post conditions (3) \(u(0,x)= 0\) for \(0< x< 1\), \(u(1,x)= 0\) for \(-1< x< 0\). The approximation method is based on an uniform grid \(x_j= jh\), \(t_j=jk\) where \(h\), \(k\) is the space- or the time-step respectively. The space of approximants consists of piecewise polynomial functions, not necessarily continuous in the time knots \(t_j\). The finite element scheme is based on a weak formulation of (1)--(3) considered in the domain \((-1,1)\times I_n\), where \(I_n= (t_{n-1}, t_n)\). A theorem concerning the estimate of the error is proved.