Inexpensive polynomial-degree-robust equilibrated flux a posteriori estimates for isogeometric analysis

In this paper, we consider isogeometric discretizations of the Poisson model problem, focusing on high polynomial degrees and strong hierarchical refinements. We derive a posteriori error estimates by equilibrated fluxes, i.e. vector-valued mapped piecewise polynomials lying in the H(div) space which appropriately approximate the desired divergence constraint. Our estimates are constant-free in the leading term, locally efficient, and robust with respect to the polynomial degree. They are also robust with respect to the number of hanging nodes arising in adaptive mesh refinement employing hierarchical B-splines, though not with respect to the smoothness and support overlaps. Two partitions of unity are designed, one with larger supports corresponding to the mapped splines, and one with small supports corresponding to mapped piecewise multilinear finite element hat basis functions. The equilibration is only performed on the small supports, avoiding the higher computational price of equilibration on the large supports or even the solution of a global system. Thus, the derived estimates are also as inexpensive as possible. An abstract framework for such a setting is developed, whose application to a specific situation only requests a verification of a few clearly identified assumptions. Numerical experiments illustrate the theoretical developments.