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Assume the consistency regularity implicit in the requested rate, for example $u\in C^4$ on the closed square. Bounded fourth derivatives and Taylor's theorem give a uniform residual ${\tau }_{ij}={\Delta }_{h}u(ih,jh)-f(ih,jh)$ with $|{\tau }_{ij}|\le C_0{h}^2$. Subtracting the exact grid values from the numerical equations gives ${\Delta }_{h}e=-\tau$, with zero boundary error.

Let $A=-h^2{\Delta }_h$ be the unscaled positive Dirichlet matrix. Its eigenvectors are products of discrete sine vectors, which form an orthogonal basis; direct substitution gives eigenvaluesSince $\sin (\pi h/2)\ge h$ for $0<h\le 1$, ${\lambda }_{11}\ge 8h^2$. Therefore $\Vert A^{-1}{\Vert }_2\le 1/(8h^2)$. The error equation is $Ae=h^2\tau$, and its residual has norm $\Vert \tau {\Vert }_2\le M{C}_0{h}^2\le C_{0}h$. Combining the bounds yieldsThis is the unweighted grid error for the five-point Poisson formula. The unweighted norm loses one power of $h$ because the grid has order $h^{-2}$ points; the area-weighted norm is second-order accurate. A regularity assumption is needed for the uniform truncation estimate and hence for this rate; the question does not specify it explicitly.