Local problems on stars: A posteriori error estimators, convergence, and performance

A new computable a posteriori error estimator is introduced, which relies on the solution of small discrete problems on stars. It exhibits built-in flux equilibration and is equivalent to the energy error up to data oscillation without any saturation assumption. A simple adaptive strategy is designed, which simultaneously reduces error and data oscillation, and is shown to converge without mesh pre-adaptation nor explicit knowledge of constants. Numerical experiments reveal a competitive performance, show extremely good effectivity indices, and yield quasi-optimal meshes.