A coupled system of singularly perturbed parabolic reaction-diffusion equations (Q849066)

The authors consider a one-dimensional parabolic system with a diagonal diffusion matrix embracing multiple scales and a linear coupling guaranteeing the maximum principle. They prove a series of estimates for the derivatives of the solution of the continuous problem in dependence on the perturbation parameters, assuming regularity and compatibility (at the corners) depending on the order of the system. For its numerical solution, they take a backward Euler method on an equidistant grid in \(t\) and a Shortley-Weller approximation on a layer-adapted Shishkin-grid in \(x\), proving first order convergence (up to a logarithmic factor). Their numerical results concern systems with 2 and 3 equations and widely different perturbation parameters and not only confirm the theoretical results but even show better behaviour in dependence on the space discretization.