Some discrete maximum principles arising for nonlinear elliptic finite element problems

The discrete maximum principle (DMP) is an important measure of the qualitative reliability of the applied numerical scheme for elliptic problems. This paper starts with formulating simple sufficient conditions for the matrix case and for nonlinear forms in Banach spaces. Then a DMP is derived for finite element solutions for certain nonlinear partial differential equations: we address nonlinear elliptic problems with mixed boundary conditions and interface conditions, allowing possibly degenerate nonlinearities and thus extending our previous results.