A Discrete Divergence-Free Weak Galerkin Finite Element Method for the Stokes Equations

A discrete divergence-free weak Galerkin finite element method is developed for the Stokes equations based on a weak Galerkin (WG) method introduced in the reference [15]. Discrete divergence-free bases are constructed explicitly for the lowest order weak Galerkin elements in two and three dimensional spaces. These basis functions can be derived on general meshes of arbitrary shape of polygons and polyhedrons. With the divergence-free basis derived, the discrete divergence-free WG scheme can eliminate the pressure variable from the system and reduces a saddle point problem to a symmetric and positive definite system with many fewer unknowns. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the robustness and accuracy of this discrete divergence-free WG method.Comment: 12 page

Weak Galerkin Finite Element Methods on Polytopal Meshes

This paper introduces a new weak Galerkin (WG) finite element method for second order elliptic equations on polytopal meshes. This method, called WG-FEM, is designed by using a discrete weak gradient operator applied to discontinuous piecewise polynomials on finite element partitions of arbitrary polytopes with certain shape regularity. The paper explains how the numerical schemes are designed and why they provide reliable numerical approximations for the underlying partial differential equations. In particular, optimal order error estimates are established for the corresponding WG-FEM approximations in both a discrete $H^1$ norm and the standard $L^2$ norm. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the robustness, reliability, and accuracy of the WG-FEM. All the results are derived for finite element partitions with polytopes. Allowing the use of discontinuous approximating functions on arbitrary polytopal elements is a highly demanded feature for numerical algorithms in scientific computing.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, 5 table

A Stable Numerical Algorithm for the Brinkman Equations by Weak Galerkin Finite Element Methods

This paper presents a stable numerical algorithm for the Brinkman equations by using weak Galerkin (WG) finite element methods. The Brinkman equations can be viewed mathematically as a combination of the Stokes and Darcy equations which model fluid flow in a multi-physics environment, such as flow in complex porous media with a permeability coefficient highly varying in the simulation domain. In such applications, the flow is dominated by Darcy in some regions and by Stokes in others. It is well known that the usual Stokes stable elements do not work well for Darcy flow and vise versa. The challenge of this study is on the design of numerical schemes which are stable for both the Stokes and the Darcy equations. This paper shows that the WG finite element method is capable of meeting this challenge by providing a numerical scheme that is stable and accurate for both Darcy and the Stokes dominated flows. Error estimates of optimal order are established for the corresponding WG finite element solutions. The paper also presents some numerical experiments that demonstrate the robustness, reliability, flexibility and accuracy of the WG method for the Brinkman equations.Comment: 20 pages, 21 plots and figure

Weak Galerkin Finite Element Methods for the Biharmonic Equation on Polytopal Meshes

A new weak Galerkin (WG) finite element method is introduced and analyzed in this paper for the biharmonic equation in its primary form. This method is highly robust and flexible in the element construction by using discontinuous piecewise polynomials on general finite element partitions consisting of polygons or polyhedra of arbitrary shape. The resulting WG finite element formulation is symmetric, positive definite, and parameter-free. Optimal order error estimates in a discrete $H^2$ norm is established for the corresponding WG finite element solutions. Error estimates in the usual $L^2$ norm are also derived, yielding a sub-optimal order of convergence for the lowest order element and an optimal order of convergence for all high order of elements. Numerical results are presented to confirm the theory of convergence under suitable regularity assumptions.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1202.3655, arXiv:1204.365

A Hybridized Formulation for the Weak Galerkin Mixed Finite Element Method

This paper presents a hybridized formulation for the weak Galerkin mixed finite element method (WG-MFEM) which was introduced and analyzed for second order elliptic equations. The WG-MFEM method was designed by using discontinuous piecewise polynomials on finite element partitions consisting of polygonal or polyhedral elements of arbitrary shape. The key to WG-MFEM is the use of a discrete weak divergence operator which is defined and computed by solving inexpensive problems locally on each element. The hybridized formulation of this paper leads to a significantly reduced system of linear equations involving only the unknowns arising from the Lagrange multiplier in hybridization. Optimal-order error estimates are derived for the hybridized WG-MFEM approximations. Some numerical results are reported to confirm the theory and a superconvergence for the Lagrange multiplier.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, 3 table

Effective Implementation of the Weak Galerkin Finite Element Methods for the Biharmonic Equation

The weak Galerkin (WG) methods have been introduced in the references [11, 16] for solving the biharmonic equation. The purpose of this paper is to develop an algorithm to implement the WG methods effectively. This can be achieved by eliminating local unknowns to obtain a global system with significant reduction of size. In fact, this reduced global system is equivalent to the Schur complements of the WG methods. The unknowns of the Schur complement of the WG method are those defined on the element boundaries. The equivalence of the WG method and its Schur complement is established. The numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of this new implementation technique.Comment: 10 page

Entanglement Spectrum of Su-Schrieffer-Heeger-Hubbard Model

We investigate the entanglement spectrum of the ground state of Su-Schrieffer-Heeger-Hubbard model. The topological phases of the model can be identified by degeneracy of the largest eigenvalues of entanglement spectrum. The study of the periodic boundary condition is enough to obtain the phase diagram of the model, without the consideration of the open boundary condition case. Physical interpretation about the bulk-edge correspondence in the entanglement spectrum is presented. The method of the entanglement spectrum can be applicable in studying other topological phases of matter

Minkowski formulae and Alexandrov theorems in spacetime

The classical Minkowski formula is extended to spacelike codimension-two submanifolds in spacetimes which admit "hidden symmetry" from conformal Killing-Yano two-forms. As an application, we obtain an Alexandrov type theorem for spacelike codimension-two submanifolds in a static spherically symmetric spacetime: a codimension-two submanifold with constant normalized null expansion (null mean curvature) must lie in a shear-free (umbilical) null hypersurface. These results are generalized for higher order curvature invariants. In particular, the notion of mixed higher order mean curvature is introduced to highlight the special null geometry of the submanifold. Finally, Alexandrov type theorems are established for spacelike submanifolds with constant mixed higher order mean curvature, which are generalizations of hypersurfaces of constant Weingarten curvature in the Euclidean space.Comment: 38 pages. To appear in J. Differential Geometr

Interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method on very general polygonal and polyhedral meshes

This paper focuses on interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin methods for second order elliptic equations on very general polygonal or polyhedral meshes. The mesh can be composed of any polygons or polyhedra which satisfies certain shape regularity conditions characterized in a recent paper by two of the authors in [17]. Such general meshes have important application in computational sciences. The usual $H^1$ conforming finite element methods on such meshes are either very complicated or impossible to implement in practical computation. However, the interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method provides a simple and effective alternative approach which is efficient and robust. This article provides a mathematical foundation for the use of interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin methods in general meshes.Comment: 12 pages, research result

A C^0-Weak Galerkin Finite Element Method for the Biharmonic Equation

A C^0-weak Galerkin (WG) method is introduced and analyzed for solving the biharmonic equation in 2D and 3D. A weak Laplacian is defined for C^0 functions in the new weak formulation. This WG finite element formulation is symmetric, positive definite and parameter free. Optimal order error estimates are established in both a discrete H^2 norm and the L^2 norm, for the weak Galerkin finite element solution. Numerical results are presented to confirm the theory. As a technical tool, a refined Scott-Zhang interpolation operator is constructed to assist the corresponding error estimate. This refined interpolation preserves the volume mass of order (k+1-d) and the surface mass of order (k+2-d) for the P_{k+2} finite element functions in d-dimensional space.Comment: 21 page