Multi-grid continuation and spurious solutions for nonlinear boundary value problems (Q1107271)

The paper presents some results about a continuation technique which the author and R. E. Bank have developed and incorporated into the multigrid, adaptive finite element solver PLTMG [see e.g. \textit{R. E. Bank}, PLTMG User's Guide, Edit. 4.0, Tech. Rep., Dept. Math. Univ. Calif, San Diego (1985)]. Some of the details of the continuation process have been discussed and analyzed earlier by the author [see, in particular, Appl. Math. Comput. 19, 265-282 (1986; Zbl 0614.65111), and SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 23, 1007-1016 (1986; Zbl 0614.65110)]. After presenting the general approach, a theorem about the growth of the norm of the inverse of the Jacobian of the augmented corrector equations in a neighborhood of a simple bifurcation point is proved. Then, it is discussed how the method detects and handles spurious solutions arising in the solution of the Bratu problem \(-\Delta u=\lambda e^ u\) on the square with homogeneous Dirichlet conditions.