Maximum Norm Resolvent Estimates for Elliptic Finite Element Operators

We study a finite element approximation A_h, based on simplicial Lagrange elements, of a second order elliptic operator A under homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions in two and three dimensions, where h is thought of as a meshsize. The main result of the paper is a new resolvent estimate for the operator A_h in the L-norm. This estimate is uniform with respect to h for the case with at least quadratic elements. In the case with linear elements, the estimate contains on the right a factor proportional to (log log ), where = 1 or = in two or three dimensions, respectively.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.