Maximum-norm error analysis of a non-monotone FEM for a singularly perturbed reaction-diffusion problem

A non-monotone FEM discretization of a singularly perturbed one-dimensional reaction-diffusion problem whose solution exhibits strong layers is considered. The method is shown to be maximum-norm stable although it is not inverse monotone. Both a priori and a posteriori error bounds in the maximum norm are derived. The a priori result can be used to deduce uniform convergence of various layer-adapted meshes proposed in the literature. Numerical experiments complement the theoretical results. AMS subject classification (2000)  65L10, 65L50, 65L60