Breaking spaces and forms for the DPG method and applications including Maxwell equations

Discontinuous Petrov Galerkin (DPG) methods are made easily implementable using `broken' test spaces, i.e., spaces of functions with no continuity constraints across mesh element interfaces. Broken spaces derivable from a standard exact sequence of first order (unbroken) Sobolev spaces are of particular interest. A characterization of interface spaces that connect the broken spaces to their unbroken counterparts is provided. Stability of certain formulations using the broken spaces can be derived from the stability of analogues that use unbroken spaces. This technique is used to provide a complete error analysis of DPG methods for Maxwell equations with perfect electric boundary conditions. The technique also permits considerable simplifications of previous analyses of DPG methods for other equations. Reliability and efficiency estimates for an error indicator also follow. Finally, the equivalence of stability for various formulations of the same Maxwell problem is proved, including the strong form, the ultraweak form, and a spectrum of forms in between

An analysis of the practical DPG method

In this work we give a complete error analysis of the Discontinuous Petrov Galerkin (DPG) method, accounting for all the approximations made in its practical implementation. Specifically, we consider the DPG method that uses a trial space consisting of polynomials of degree $p$ on each mesh element. Earlier works showed that there is a "trial-to-test" operator $T$, which when applied to the trial space, defines a test space that guarantees stability. In DPG formulations, this operator $T$ is local: it can be applied element-by-element. However, an infinite dimensional problem on each mesh element needed to be solved to apply $T$. In practical computations, $T$ is approximated using polynomials of some degree $r > p$ on each mesh element. We show that this approximation maintains optimal convergence rates, provided that $r\ge p+N$, where $N$ is the space dimension (two or more), for the Laplace equation. We also prove a similar result for the DPG method for linear elasticity. Remarks on the conditioning of the stiffness matrix in DPG methods are also included.Comment: Mathematics of Computation, 201

A first order system least squares method for the Helmholtz equation

We present a first order system least squares (FOSLS) method for the Helmholtz equation at high wave number k, which always deduces Hermitian positive definite algebraic system. By utilizing a non-trivial solution decomposition to the dual FOSLS problem which is quite different from that of standard finite element method, we give error analysis to the hp-version of the FOSLS method where the dependence on the mesh size h, the approximation order p, and the wave number k is given explicitly. In particular, under some assumption of the boundary of the domain, the L2 norm error estimate of the scalar solution from the FOSLS method is shown to be quasi optimal under the condition that kh/p is sufficiently small and the polynomial degree p is at least O(\log k). Numerical experiments are given to verify the theoretical results