An a posteriori error estimate for a first-kind integral equation

In this paper we present a new a posteriori error estimate for the boundary element method applied to an integral equation of the first kind. The estimate is local and sharp for quasi-uniform meshes and so improves earlier work of ours. The mesh-dependence of the constants is analyzed and shown to be weaker than expected from our previous work. Besides the Galerkin boundary element method, the collocation method and the qualocation method are considered. A numerical example is given involving an adaptive feedback algorithm.