Reliable numerical solution of a class of nonlinear elliptic problems generated by the Poisson-Boltzmann equation

We consider a class of nonlinear elliptic problems associated with models in biophysics, which are described by the Poisson-Boltzmann equation (PBE). We prove mathematical correctness of the problem, study a suitable class of approximations, and deduce guaranteed and fully computable bounds of approximation errors. The latter goal is achieved by means of the approach suggested in [S. Repin, A posteriori error estimation for variational problems with uniformly convex functionals. Math. Comp., 69:481-500, 2000] for convex variational problems. Moreover, we establish the error identity, which defines the error measure natural for the considered class of problems and show that it yields computa…