Sharp [formula omitted]-norm error estimates of two time-stepping schemes for reaction–subdiffusion problems

Abstract

Due to the intrinsically initial singularity of solution and the discrete convolution form in numerical Caputo derivatives, the traditional H1-norm analysis (corresponding to the case for a classical diffusion equation) to the time approximations of a fractional subdiffusion problem always leads to suboptimal error estimates (a loss of time accuracy). To recover the theoretical accuracy in time, we propose an improved discrete Grönwall inequality and apply it to the well-known L1 formula and a fractional Crank–Nicolson scheme. With the help of a time-space error-splitting technique and the global consistency analysis, sharp H1-norm error estimates of the two nonuniform approaches are established for a reaction–subdiffusion problems. Numerical experiments are included to confirm the sharpness of our analysis.