The contraction number of a multigrid method with mesh ratio 2 for solving Poisson's equation (Q799355)

The convergence rate of a multigrid method for the solution of the Poisson equation on a uniform grid is estimated. In contrast to the reviewer's estimates Math. Comput. 42, 505-519 (1984; Zbl 0539.65075)], the ratio of the meshsizes equals 2 and corresponds to the usual choice. It is shown that the error reducing factor per cycle is less than 0.273, if the domain is an arbitrary convex polygon and smoothing by Gauss- Seidel relaxations is used. Results for the V-cycle are included. For the derivation of the estimates, not only the energy-norm for the fine grid, but a weaker norm (with divided differences) referring to coarser grids is also used. Other tools for the analysis are a strengthened Cauchy inequality and a duality technique.