Space-time adaptive methods for parabolic evolution equations

Abstract: We present a family of integral equation-based solvers for the heat equation, reaction-diffusion systems, the unsteady Stokes equation and the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in two space dimensions. Our emphasis is on the development of methods that can efficiently follow complex solution features in space-time by refinement and coarsening at each time step on an adaptive quadtree. For simplicity, we focus on problems posed in a square domain with periodic boundary conditions. The performance and robustness of the methods are illustrated with several numerical examples.