Article Submitted to ***Journal title*** Deriving a new domain decomposition method for

In this paper the Smith factorization is used systematically to derive a new domain decomposition method for the Stokes problem. In two dimensions the key idea is the transformation of the Stokes problem into a scalar bi-harmonic problem. We show, how a proposed domain decomposition method for the bi-harmonic problem leads to a domain decomposition method for the Stokes equa-tions which inherits the convergence behavior of the scalar problem. Thus, it is sufficient to study the convergence of the scalar algorithm. The same procedure can also be applied to the three dimensional Stokes problem. As transmission conditions for the resulting domain decomposition method of the Stokes problem we obtain natural boundary conditions. Therefore it can be implemented easily. A Fourier analysis and some numerical experiments show very fast conver-gence of the proposed algorithm. Our algorithm shows a more robust behavior than Neumann-Neumann or FETI type methods. August 7, 2006 1