Standard finite elements for the numerical resolution of the elliptic Monge-Ampere equation: Aleksandrov solutions

We prove a convergence result for a natural discretization of the Dirichlet problem of the elliptic Monge-Ampere equation using finite dimensional spaces of piecewise polynomial C0 or C1 functions. Standard discretizations of the type considered in this paper have been previous analyzed in the case the equation has a smooth solution and numerous numerical evidence of convergence were given in the case of non smooth solutions. Our convergence result is valid for non smooth solutions, is given in the setting of Aleksandrov solutions, and consists in discretizing the equation in a subdomain with the boundary data used as an approximation of the solution in the remaining part of the domain. Our result gives a theoretical validation for the use of a non monotone finite element method for the Monge-Amp\`ere equation

Iterative methods for k-Hessian equations

On a domain of the n-dimensional Euclidean space, and for an integer k=1,...,n, the k-Hessian equations are fully nonlinear elliptic equations for k >1 and consist of the Poisson equation for k=1 and the Monge-Ampere equation for k=n. We analyze for smooth non degenerate solutions a 9-point finite difference scheme. We prove that the discrete scheme has a locally unique solution with a quadratic convergence rate. In addition we propose new iterative methods which are numerically shown to work for non smooth solutions. A connection of the latter with a popular Gauss-Seidel method for the Monge-Ampere equation is established and new Gauss-Seidel type iterative methods for 2-Hessian equations are introduced

Pseudo transient continuation and time marching methods for Monge-Ampere type equations

We present two numerical methods for the fully nonlinear elliptic Monge-Ampere equation. The first is a pseudo transient continuation method and the second is a pure pseudo time marching method. The methods are proven to converge to a strictly convex solution of a natural discrete variational formulation with $C^1$ conforming approximations. The assumption of existence of a strictly convex solution to the discrete problem is proven for smooth solutions of the continuous problem and supported by numerical evidence for non smooth solutions