Approximation classes for adaptive time-stepping finite element methods

Abstract: We study approximation classes for adaptive time-stepping finite element methods for time-dependent Partial Differential Equations (PDE). We measure the approximation error in $L_2([0,T)\times\Omega)$ and consider the approximation with discontinuous finite elements in time and continuous finite elements in space, of any degree. As a byproduct we define Besov spaces for vector-valued functions on an interval and derive some embeddings, as well as Jackson- and Whitney-type estimates.