Error estimates for the numerical solution of a time-periodic linear parabolic problem (Q1182620)

The paper is devoted to the numerical solution of the time-periodic linear parabolic problem \(u_ t+Au=f\) in \(\Omega \times (0,T)\), \(u =0\) on \(\partial\Omega \times(0,T)\) and \(u(0) = u(T)\) in \(\Omega\). On the basis of the known estimates for the associated initial-boundary value problem the author derives optimal error estimates in \(L_ 2(\Omega)\) for the semidiscrete finite element Galerkin scheme as well as for the fully discrete backward Euler-finite-element-Galerkin scheme. In the second part of the paper, the author develops the technique for obtaining error estimates in stronger norms (e.g. \(H^ 1\)-norm, or \(L_ \infty\)-norm) for the semidiscrete finite element scheme and even for a wider class of single-step time-discretization schemes including Crank- Nicolson and others. Finally, the author discusses computational aspects and gives numerical examples.