Smoothed projections over manifolds in finite element exterior calculus

We develop commuting finite element projections over smooth Riemannian manifolds. This extension of finite element exterior calculus establishes the stability and convergence of finite element methods for the Hodge-Laplace equation on manifolds. The commuting projections use localized mollification operators, building upon a classical construction by de Rham. These projections are uniformly bounded on Lebesgue spaces of differential forms and map onto intrinsic finite element spaces defined with respect to an intrinsic smooth triangulation of the manifold. We analyze the Galerkin approximation error. Since practical computations use extrinsic finite element methods over approximate computational manifolds, we also analyze the geometric error incurred.Comment: Submitted. 31 page

Convergence and Optimality of Adaptive Mixed Methods on Surfaces

In a 1988 article, Dziuk introduced a nodal finite element method for the Laplace-Beltrami equation on 2-surfaces approximated by a piecewise-linear triangulation, initiating a line of research into surface finite element methods (SFEM). Demlow and Dziuk built on the original results, introducing an adaptive method for problems on 2-surfaces, and Demlow later extended the a priori theory to 3-surfaces and higher order elements. In a separate line of research, the Finite Element Exterior Calculus (FEEC) framework has been developed over the last decade by Arnold, Falk and Winther and others as a way to exploit the observation that mixed variational problems can be posed on a Hilbert complex, and Galerkin-type mixed methods can be obtained by solving finite dimensional subproblems. In 2011, Holst and Stern merged these two lines of research by developing a framework for variational crimes in abstract Hilbert complexes, allowing for application of the FEEC framework to problems that violate the subcomplex assumption of Arnold, Falk and Winther. When applied to Euclidean hypersurfaces, this new framework recovers the original a priori results and extends the theory to problems posed on surfaces of arbitrary dimensions. In yet another seemingly distinct line of research, Holst, Mihalik and Szypowski developed a convergence theory for a specific class of adaptive problems in the FEEC framework. Here, we bring these ideas together, showing convergence and optimality of an adaptive finite element method for the mixed formulation of the Hodge Laplacian on hypersurfaces.Comment: 22 pages, no figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1306.188

Finite element exterior calculus for parabolic problems

In this paper, we consider the extension of the finite element exterior calculus from elliptic problems, in which the Hodge Laplacian is an appropriate model problem, to parabolic problems, for which we take the Hodge heat equation as our model problem. The numerical method we study is a Galerkin method based on a mixed variational formulation and using as subspaces the same spaces of finite element differential forms which are used for elliptic problems. We analyze both the semidiscrete and a fully-discrete numerical scheme.Comment: 17 page

Local Finite Element Approximation of Sobolev Differential Forms

We address fundamental aspects in the approximation theory of vector-valued finite element methods, using finite element exterior calculus as a unifying framework. We generalize the Cl\'ement interpolant and the Scott-Zhang interpolant to finite element differential forms, and we derive a broken Bramble-Hilbert Lemma. Our interpolants require only minimal smoothness assumptions and respect partial boundary conditions. This permits us to state local error estimates in terms of the mesh size. Our theoretical results apply to curl-conforming and divergence-conforming finite element methods over simplicial triangulations.Comment: 22 pages. Comments welcom

Complexes of Discrete Distributional Differential Forms and their Homology Theory

Complexes of discrete distributional differential forms are introduced into finite element exterior calculus. Thus we generalize a notion of Braess and Sch\"oberl, originally studied for a posteriori error estimation. We construct isomorphisms between the simplicial homology groups of the triangulation, the discrete harmonic forms of the finite element complex, and the harmonic forms of the distributional finite element complexes. As an application, we prove that the complexes of finite element exterior calculus have cohomology groups isomorphic to the de Rham cohomology, including the case of partial boundary conditions. Poincar\'e-Friedrichs-type inequalities will be studied in a subsequent contribution.Comment: revised preprint, 26 page