Robust error bounds for finite element approximation of reaction–diffusion problems with non-constant reaction coefficient in arbitrary space dimension

We present a fully computable a posteriori error estimator for piecewise linear finite element approximations of reaction–diffusion problems with mixed boundary conditions and piecewise constant reaction coefficient formulated in arbitrary dimension. The estimator provides a guaranteed upper bound on the energy norm of the error and it is robust for all values of the reaction coefficient, including the singularly perturbed case. The approach is based on robustly equilibrated boundary flux functions of Ainsworth and Oden (2000) and on subsequent robust and explicit flux reconstruction. This paper simplifies and extends the applicability of the previous result of Ainsworth and Vejchodský (2011) in three aspects: (i) arbitrary dimension, (ii) mixed boundary conditions, and (iii) non-constant reaction coefficient. It is the first robust upper bound on the error with these properties. An auxiliary result that is of independent interest is the derivation of new explicit constants for two types of trace inequalities on simplices.