Large-scale Multigrid with Adaptive Galerkin Coarsening

Abstract: We propose a robust, adaptive coarse-grid correction scheme for matrix-free geometric multigrid targeting PDEs with strongly varying coefficients. The method combines uniform geometric coarsening of the underlying grid with heterogeneous coarse-grid operators: Galerkin coarse grid approximation is applied locally in regions with large coefficient gradients, while lightweight, direct coarse grid approximation is used elsewhere. This selective application ensures that local Galerkin operators are computed and stored only where necessary, minimizing memory requirements while maintaining robust convergence. We demonstrate the method on a suite of sinker benchmark problems for the generalized Stokes equation, including grid-aligned and unaligned viscosity jumps, smoothly varying viscosity functions with large gradients, and different viscosity evaluation techniques. We analytically quantify the solver's memory consumption and demonstrate its efficiency by solving Stokes problems with $10^{10}$ degrees of freedom, viscosity jumps of $10^{6}$ magnitude, and more than 100{,}000 parallel processes.