Approximation of Abstract Differential Equations

Abstract

This review paper is devoted to the numerical analysis of abstract differential equations in Banach spaces. Most of the finite difference, finite element, and projection methods can be considered from the point of view of general approximation schemes (see, e.g., [207,210,211] for such a representation). Results obtained for general approximation schemes make the formulation of concrete numerical methods easier and give an overview of methods which are suitable for different classes of problems. The qualitative theory of differential equations in Banach spaces is presented in many brilliant papers and books. We can refer to the bibliography [218], which contains about 3000 references. Unfortunately, no books or reviews on general approximation theory appear for differential equations in abstract spaces during last 20 years. Any information on the subject can be found in the original papers only. It seems that such a review is the first step towards describing a complete picture of discretization methods for abstract differential equations in Banach spaces. In Sec. 2 we describe the general approximation scheme, different types of convergence of operators, and the relation between the convergence and the approximation of spectra. Also, such a convergence analysis can be used if one considers elliptic problems, i.e., the problems which do not depend on time. Section 3 contains a complete picture of the theory of discretization of semigroups on Banach spaces. It summarizes Trotter–Kato and Lax–Richtmyer theorems from the general and common point of view and related problems. The approximation of ill-posed problems is considered in Sec. 4, which is based on the theory of approximation of local C-semigroups. Since the backward Cauchy problem is very important in applications and admits a stochastic noise, we also consider approximation using a stochastic regularization. Such an approach was never considered in the literature before to the best of our knowledge. In Sec. 5, we present discrete coercive inequalities for abstract parabolic equations in Cτn([0, T ];En), C τn([0, T ];En), L p τn([0, T ];En), and Bτn([0, T ];C (Ωh)) spaces.