A posteriori error estimates for parabolic differential systems solved by the finite element method of lines (Q1345763)

The author derives two a posteriori error estimates for the finite element solution to the following system of parabolic equations: \[ \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}= \frac{\partial}{\partial x} \Biggl(A(x)\frac {\partial u} {\partial x}\Biggr)- B(x) u+ f,\quad x\in (0, 1),\quad t\in (0, T] \] with initial and boundary conditions \(u(x, 0)= u^ 0(x)\), \(x\in (0, 1)\), \(u(0, t)= u(1, t)= 0\). Here \(T> 0\) is fixed, \(u= [u_ 1,\dots, u_ N]^ T\), \(A= [A_{ik}]_{N\times N}\) is a given smooth symmetric positive definite matrix, \(B= [B_{ik}]_{N\times N}\) is a given smooth real symmetric positive semidefinite matrix, and \(f= [f_ 1,\dots, f_ N]^ T\) is a given \(N\)- component vector. It is shown that the parabolic and elliptic error estimates converge to the exact error in \(H^ 1\)-norm. This article generalizes the results of \textit{S. Adjerid} and \textit{J. E. Flaherty} [SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 23, 778-796 (1986; Zbl 0612.65071)] and of \textit{S. Adjerid}, \textit{J. E. Flaherty} and \textit{Y. J. Wang} [Numer. Math. 65, No. 1, 1-21 (1993; Zbl 0791.65070)] to a general system.