Stopping criteria for adaptive finite element solvers (Q2847724)

The paper analyzes a family of practical stopping criteria for linear solvers for adaptive finite element methods for symmetric elliptic problems. When a family of smallness criteria for the corresponding linear solver residuals are assumed on each level of refinement, a contraction property between two consecutive levels of refinement of the adaptive algorithm is shown. The authors prove that the smallness criteria give rise to practical stopping criteria for the iterations of the linear solver, which guarantees that the adaptive algorithm converges. Numerical examples are also discussed.