Mesh optimization for singular axisymmetric harmonic maps from the disc into the sphere (Q2580992)

The authors describe in a mathematical setting the singular energy minimizing axisymmetric harmonic maps from the unit disc into the unit sphere. For the well-posedness of the continuous minimizing problem, they introduce a lower semicontinuous extension of the energy with respect to weak convergence in the space of functions of bounded variation, and prove that the extended minimization problem has a unique singular solution. Moreover, it is shown how a moving finite element method, in which the mesh is an unknown of the discrete minimization problem obtained by finite element discretization, mimics this geometric point of view. Finally, numerical computations with boundary layers of zero thickness are presented.