A posteriori verification for the sign-change structure of solutions of elliptic partial differential equations

Abstract

This paper proposes a method for rigorously analyzing the sign-change structure of solutions of elliptic partial differential equations subject to one of the three types of homogeneous boundary conditions: Dirichlet, Neumann, and mixed. Given explicitly estimated error bounds between an exact solution u and a numerically computed approximate solution {hat{u}}, we evaluate the number of sign-changes of u (the number of nodal domains) and determine the location of zero level-sets of u (the location of the nodal line). We apply this method to the Dirichlet problem of the Allen–Cahn equation. The nodal line of solutions of this equation represents the interface between two coexisting phases.