Lavrentiev regularization + Ritz approximation = uniform finite element error estimates for differential equations with rough coefficients (Q4780362)

In a real Hilbert space, the authors develop an existence and uniform boundedness theory for abstract equations \((A+\omega I)u=f\) (with a parameter \(\omega\in (0,1]\)), and for its approximate solution by an abstract Ritz-Galerkin method. It is assumed that the part of \(f\) in ker \(A\) is of the order \(\omega\). This theory is examplified on a diffusion equation with arbitrarily large jumps in the diffusion coefficient. The problem is posed in a two-dimensional domain \(\Omega\) and has an appropriate right-hand side, the diffusion coefficient is \(\omega\) in an open subset inside \(\Omega\), and is \(1+\omega\) outside of the subset. Here, a regularity result with estimates (uniformly in \(\omega\)) in a Sobolev space of broken derivative order is proved. The linear finite element method (on a triangulation not cutting the line of discontinuity of the coefficient) is shown to admit an error estimate uniformly in \(\omega\), and this result is confirmed by numerical experiments.