A remark on the optimality of adaptive finite element methods

We show that the standard assumption on the smallness of the marking parameter θ in adaptive finite element methods can be avoided for the proof of the optimality of the algorithm. To this end we propose a new technique based on comparison of the solutions of different finite element spaces obtained by different refinements of a given mesh. We consider conforming and nonconforming low-order finite elements on triangular and tetrahedral meshes.