arXiv subjects

Martin Stynes

Publications and source records attributed to Martin Stynes.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Uniform error analysis of a rectangular Morley finite element method on a Shishkin mesh for a 4th-order singularly perturbed boundary value problem

The singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion problem $\varepsilon^2\Delta^2 u - \mathrm{div}\left(c\nabla u\right) = f$ is considered on the unit square $\Omega$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with homogenous Dirichlet boundary conditions. Its solution typically contains boundary layers on all sides of~$\Omega$. It is discretised by a finite element method that uses rectangular Morley elements on a Shishkin mesh. In an associated energy-type norm that is natural for this problem, we prove an $O(\varepsilon^{1/2}N^{-1}+\varepsilon N^{-1}\ln N + N^{-3/2})$ rate of convergence for the error in the computed solution, where $N$~is the number of mesh intervals in each coordinate direction. Thus in the most troublesome regime when $\varepsilon \approx N^{-1}$, our method is proved to attain an $O(N^{-3/2})$ rate of convergence, which is shown to be sharp by our numerical experiments and is superior to the $O(N^{-1/2})$ rate that is proved in Meng & Stynes, Adv. Comput. Math. 2019 when Adini finite elements are used to solve the same problem on the same mesh.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Optimal balanced-norm error estimate of the LDG method for reaction-diffusion problems II: the two-dimensional case with layer-upwind flux

A singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion problem posed on the unit square in $\mathbb{R}^2$ is solved numerically by a local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) finite element method. Typical solutions of this class of 2D problems exhibit boundary layers along the sides of the domain; these layers generally cause difficulties for numerical methods. Our LDG method handles the boundary layers by using a Shishkin mesh and also introducing the new concept of a ``layer-upwind flux" -- a discrete flux whose values are chosen on the fine mesh (which lies inside the boundary layers) in the direction where the layer weakens. On the coarse mesh, one can use a standard central flux. No penalty terms are needed with these fluxes, unlike many other variants of the LDG method. Our choice of discrete flux makes it feasible to derive an optimal-order error analysis in a balanced norm; this norm is stronger than the usual energy norm and is a more appropriate measure for errors in computed solutions for singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion problems. It will be proved that the LDG method is usually convergent of order $O((N^{-1}\ln N)^{k+1})$ in the balanced norm, where $N$ is the number of mesh intervals in each coordinate direction and tensor-product piecewise polynomials of degree~$k$ in each coordinate variable are used in the LDG method. This result is the first of its kind for the LDG method applied to this class of problem and is optimal for convergence on a Shishkin mesh. Its sharpness is confirmed by numerical experiments.

math.NA↗

arXiv2022

The local discontinuous Galerkin method for a singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problem with characteristic and exponential layers

A singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problem,posed on the unit square in $\mathbb{R}^2$, is studied; its solution has both exponential and characteristic boundary layers. The problem is solved numerically using the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method on Shishkin meshes. Using tensor-product piecewise polynomials of degree at most $k>0$ in each variable, the error between the LDG solution and the true solution is proved to converge, uniformly in the singular perturbation parameter, at a rate of $O((N^{-1}\ln N)^{k+1/2})$ in an associated energy norm, where $N$ is the number of mesh intervals in each coordinate direction.(This is the first uniform convergence result proved for the LDG method applied to a problem with characteristic boundary layers.) Furthermore, we prove that this order of convergence increases to $O((N^{-1}\ln N)^{k+1})$ when one measures the energy-norm difference between the LDG solution and a local Gauss-Radau projection of the true solution into the finite element space.This uniform supercloseness property implies an optimal $L^2$ error estimate of order $(N^{-1}\ln N)^{k+1}$ for our LDG method. Numerical experiments show the sharpness of our theoretical results.

math.NA↗

arXiv2022

Supercloseness of the local discontinuous Galerkin method for a singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problem

A singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problem posed on the unit square in $\mathbb{R}^2$, whose solution has exponential boundary layers, is solved numerically using the local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method with piecewise polynomials of degree at most $k>0$ on three families of layer-adapted meshes: Shishkin-type, Bakhvalov-Shishkin-type and Bakhvalov-type.On Shishkin-type meshes this method is known to be no greater than $O(N^{-(k+1/2)})$ accurate in the energy norm induced by the bilinear form of the weak formulation, where $N$ mesh intervals are used in each coordinate direction. (Note: all bounds in this abstract are uniform in the singular perturbation parameter and neglect logarithmic factors that will appear in our detailed analysis.) A delicate argument is used in this paper to establish $O(N^{-(k+1)})$ energy-norm superconvergence on all three types of mesh for the difference between the LDG solution and a local Gauss-Radau projection of the exact solution into the finite element space. This supercloseness property implies a new $N^{-(k+1)}$ bound for the $L^2$ error between the LDG solution on each type of mesh and the exact solution of the problem; this bound is optimal (up to logarithmic factors). Numerical experiments confirm our theoretical results.

math.NA↗

arXiv2022

Optimal long-time decay rate of solutions of complete monotonicity-preserving schemes for nonlinear time-fractional evolutionary equations

The solution of the nonlinear initial-value problem $\mathcal{D}_{t}^{\alpha}y(t)=-\lambda y(t)^{\gamma}$ for $t>0$ with $y(0)>0$, where $\mathcal{D}_{t}^{\alpha}$ is a Caputo derivative of order $\alpha\in (0,1)$ and $\lambda, \gamma$ are positive parameters, is known to exhibit $O(t^{\alpha/\gamma})$ decay as $t\to\infty$. No corresponding result for any discretisation of this problem has previously been proved. In the present paper it is shown that for the class of complete monotonicity-preserving ($\mathcal{CM}$-preserving) schemes (which includes the L1 and Gr\"unwald-Letnikov schemes) on uniform meshes $\{t_n:=nh\}_{n=0}^\infty$, the discrete solution also has $O(t_{n}^{-\alpha/\gamma})$ decay as $t_{n}\to\infty$. This result is then extended to $\mathcal{CM}$-preserving discretisations of certain time-fractional nonlinear subdiffusion problems such as the time-fractional porous media and $p$-Laplace equations. For the L1 scheme, the $O(t_{n}^{-\alpha/\gamma})$ decay result is shown to remain valid on a very general class of nonuniform meshes. Our analysis uses a discrete comparison principle with discrete subsolutions and supersolutions that are carefully constructed to give tight bounds on the discrete solution. Numerical experiments are provided to confirm our theoretical analysis.

math.NA↗

arXiv2022

A posteriori error analysis for variable-coefficient multiterm time-fractional subdiffusion equations

An initial-boundary value problem of subdiffusion type is considered; the temporal component of the differential operator has the form $\sum_{i=1}^{\ell}q_i(t)\, D _t ^{\alpha_i} u(x,t)$, where the $q_i$ are continuous functions, each $D _t ^{\alpha_i}$ is a Caputo derivative, and the $\alpha_i$ lie in $(0,1]$. Maximum/comparison principles for this problem are proved under weak hypotheses. A new positivity result for the multinomial Mittag-Leffler function is derived. A posteriori error bounds are obtained in $L_2(\Omega)$ and $L_\infty(\Omega)$, where the spatial domain $\Omega$ lies in $\bR^d$ with $d\in\{1,2,3\}$. An adaptive algorithm based on this theory is tested extensively and shown to yield accurate numerical solutions on the meshes generated by the algorithm.

math.NA↗

arXiv2020

Why fractional derivatives with nonsingular kernels should not be used

In recent years, many papers discuss the theory and applications of new fractional-order derivatives that are constructed by replacing the singular kernel of the Caputo or Riemann-Liouville derivative by a non-singular (i.e., bounded) kernel. It will be shown here, through rigorous mathematical reasoning, that these non-singular kernel derivatives suffer from several drawbacks which should forbid their use. They fail to satisfy the fundamental theorem of fractional calculus since they do not admit the existence of a corresponding convolution integral of which the derivative is the left-inverse; and the value of the derivative at the initial time $t=0$ is always zero, which imposes an unnatural restriction on the differential equations and models where these derivatives can be used. For the particular cases of the so-called Caputo-Fabrizio and Atangana-Baleanu derivatives, it is shown that when this restriction holds the derivative can be simply expressed in terms of integer derivatives and standard Caputo fractional derivatives, thus demonstrating that these derivatives contain nothing new.

math.CA↗

arXiv2019

Existence, uniqueness and regularity of the solution of the time-fractional Fokker-Planck equation with general forcing

A time-fractional Fokker-Planck initial-boundary value problem is considered, with differential operator $u_t-\nabla\cdot(\partial_t^{1-\alpha}\kappa_\alpha\nabla u-\textbf{F}\partial_t^{1-\alpha}u)$, where $0<\alpha <1$. The forcing function $\textbf{F} = \textbf{F}(t,x)$, which is more difficult to analyse than the case $\textbf{F}=\textbf{F}(x)$ investigated previously by other authors. The spatial domain $\Omega \subset\mathbb{R}^d$, where $d\ge 1$, has a smooth boundary. Existence, uniqueness and regularity of a mild solution $u$ is proved under the hypothesis that the initial data $u_0$ lies in $L^2(\Omega)$. For $1/2<\alpha<1$ and $u_0\in H^2(\Omega)\cap H_0^1(\Omega)$, it is shown that $u$ becomes a classical solution of the problem. Estimates of time derivatives of the classical solution are derived---these are known to be needed in numerical analyses of this problem.

math.AP↗

arXiv2016

Too much regularity may force too much uniqueness

Time-dependent fractional-derivative problems $D_t^\delta u + Au = f$ are considered, where $D_t^\delta$ is a Caputo fractional derivative of order $\delta\in (0,1)\cup (1,2)$ and~$A$ is a classical elliptic operator, and appropriate boundary and initial conditions are applied. The regularity of solutions to this class of problems is discussed, and it is shown that assuming more regularity than is generally true---as many researchers do---places a surprisingly severe restriction on the problem.

math.AP↗

arXiv2013

A finite difference method for a two-point boundary value problem with a Caputo fractional derivative

A two-point boundary value problem whose highest-order term is a Caputo fractional derivative of order $\delta \in (1,2)$ is considered. Al-Refai's comparison principle is improved and modified to fit our problem. Sharp a priori bounds on derivatives of the solution $u$ of the boundary value problem are established, showing that $u''(x)$ may be unbounded at the interval endpoint $x=0$. These bounds and a discrete comparison principle are used to prove pointwise convergence of a finite difference method for the problem, where the convective term is discretized using simple upwinding to yield stability on coarse meshes for all values of $\delta$. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the performance of the method.

math.NA↗

arXiv2013

Numerical methods for convection-diffusion problems or The 30 years war

Convection-diffusion problems arise in the modelling of many physical processes. Their typical solutions exhibit boundary and/or interior layers. Despite the linear nature of the differential operator, these problems pose still-unanswered questions to the numerical analyst. This talk will give a selective overview of numerical methods for the solution of convection-diffusion problems, while placing them in a historical context. It examines the principles that underpin the competing numerical techniques in this area and presents some recent developments.

math.NA↗

arXiv2010

Perturbed asymptotic expansions for interior-layer solutions of a semilinear reaction-diffusion problem with small diffusion

A semilinear reaction-diffusion two-point boundary value problem, whose second-order derivative is multiplied by a small positive parameter $\eps^2$, is considered. It can have multiple solutions. An asymptotic expansion is constructed for a solution that has an interior layer. Further properties are then established for a perturbation of this expansion. These are used in\cite{KoStMain} to obtain discrete sub-solutions and super-solutions for certain finite difference methods described there, and in this way yield convergence results for those methods.

math.NA↗