Ralf Hiptmair

Ralf Hiptmair, Weiying Zheng

We consider H(curl)-elliptic variational problems on bounded Lipschitz polyhedra and their finite element Galerkin discretization by means of lowest order edge elements. We assume that the underlying tetrahedral mesh has been created by successive local mesh refinement, either by local uniform refinement with hanging nodes or bisection refinement. In this setting we develop a convergence theory for the the so-called local multigrid correction scheme with hybrid smoothing. We establish that its convergence rate is uniform with respect to the number of refinement steps. The proof relies on corresponding results for local multigrid in a H1-context along with local discrete Helmholtz-type decompositions of the edge element space.

Ralf Hiptmair

We consider the first family of $\Hcurl$-conforming Nedéléc finite elements on tetrahedral meshes. Spectral approximation ($p$-version) is achieved by keeping the mesh fixed and raising the polynomial degree $p$ uniformly in all mesh cells. We prove that the associated subspaces of discretely weakly divergence free piecewise polynomial vector fields enjoy a long conjectured discrete compactness property as $p\to\infty$. This permits us to conclude asymptotic spectral correctness of spectral Galerkin finite element approximations of Maxwell eigenvalue problems.

Julian Eckhardt, Ralf Hiptmair, Thorsten Hohage et al.

By introducing a shape manifold as a solution set to solve inverse obstacle scattering problems we allow the reconstruction of general, not necessarily star-shaped curves. The bending energy is used as a stabilizing term in Tikhonov regularization to gain independence of the parametrization. Moreover, we discuss how self-intersections can be avoided by penalization with the Möbius energy and prove the regularizing property of our approach as well as convergence rates under variational source conditions. In the second part of the paper the discrete setting is introduced, and we describe a numerical method for finding the minimizer of the Tikhonov functional on a shape-manifold. Numerical examples demonstrate the feasibility of reconstructing non-star-shaped obstacles.

Wietse M. Boon, Ralf Hiptmair, Wouter Tonnon et al.

Reformulating the incompressible Stokes equations with the velocity sought in H(curl) has recently emerged as a promising approach for the design of helicity-preserving schemes in magnetohydrodynamics and pressure-robust finite element methods on polygonal meshes. A key challenge in this setting, however, is the treatment of Navier slip boundary conditions. In this paper, we overcome this difficulty by recasting the slip condition as a Robin boundary condition and proving well-posedness of the resulting continuous problem. We further identify the geometric and regularity assumptions on the domain and the exact solution under which the classical Stokes solution is recovered. Finally, we study a conforming finite element Galerkin discretization, establishing stability and a priori error estimates. Numerical experiments validate the optimal convergence rates predicted by the theory.

Ralf Hiptmair, Peiyang Yu, Tianwei Yu

This work establishes the well-posedness and a priori error analysis for the mixed FEEC-type finite element approximation of the three-dimensional vector Laplace boundary value problem subject to the Dirichlet boundary condition. The Dirichlet condition disrupts the structure of the standard de Rham complex, requiring the vorticity to be sought in a non-standard function space to achieve well-posedness. We derive error estimates that confirm the numerically observed suboptimal convergence rates. In particular, by developing a discrete Caccioppoli-type inequality for discrete curl-harmonic functions, we prove $(k-1/2)$-th order convergence in the energy norm on general domains and $k$-th order convergence in $L^2$ on convex domains, where $k \ge 1$ denotes polynomial degrees of the finite element spaces. These results extend the previous two-dimensional analysis developed in [Arnold, D.N., Falk, R.S. and Gopalakrishnan, J., 2012. Mixed finite element approximation of the vector Laplacian with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Mathematical Models and Methods in Applied Sciences, 22(9), p.1250024.]~to three-dimensional domains with general topology. As a direct application, a discretization of the Stokes problem in vorticity-velocity-pressure form is studied.

Radovan Dabetić, Ralf Hiptmair

A short proof of convergence for the discretization of the Hodge-Dirac operator in the framework of discrete exterior calculus (DEC) is provided using the techniques established in [Johnny Guzmán and Pratyush Potu, A Framework for Analysis of DEC Approximations to Hodge-Laplacian Problems using Generalized Whitney Forms, arXiv:2505.08934, 2025]

Ralf Hiptmair, Andrea Moiola, Ilaria Perugia

Trefftz methods are finite element-type schemes whose test and trial functions are (locally) solutions of the targeted differential equation. They are particularly popular for time-harmonic wave problems, as their trial spaces contain oscillating basis functions and may achieve better approximation properties than classical piecewise-polynomial spaces. We review the construction and properties of several Trefftz variational formulations developed for the Helmholtz equation, including least squares, discontinuous Galerkin, ultra weak variational formulation, variational theory of complex rays and wave based methods. The most common discrete Trefftz spaces used for this equation employ generalised harmonic polynomials (circular and spherical waves), plane and evanescent waves, fundamental solutions and multipoles as basis functions; we describe theoretical and computational aspects of these spaces, focusing in particular on their approximation properties. One of the most promising, but not yet well developed, features of Trefftz methods is the use of adaptivity in the choice of the propagation directions for the basis functions. The main difficulties encountered in the implementation are the assembly and the ill-conditioning of linear systems, we briefly survey some strategies that have been proposed to cope with these problems.

Daniele Boffi, Martin Costabel, Monique Dauge et al.

In this paper we prove the discrete compactness property for a wide class of p-version finite element approximations of non-elliptic variational eigenvalue problems in two and three space dimensions. In a very general framework, we find sufficient conditions for the p-version of a generalized discrete compactness property, which is formulated in the setting of discrete differential forms of any order on a d-dimensional polyhedral domain. One of the main tools for the analysis is a recently introduced smoothed Poincaré lifting operator [M. Costabel and A. McIntosh, On Bogovskii and regularized Poincaré integral operators for de Rham complexes on Lipschitz domains, Math. Z., (2010)]. For forms of order 1 our analysis shows that several widely used families of edge finite elements satisfy the discrete compactness property in p-version and hence provide convergent solutions to the Maxwell eigenvalue problem. In particular, Nédélec elements on triangles and tetrahedra (first and second kind) and on parallelograms and parallelepipeds (first kind) are covered by our theory.

Holger Heumann, Ralf Hiptmair

We consider generalized linear transient convection-diffusion problems for differential forms on bounded domains in $\mathbb{R}^{n}$. These involve Lie derivatives with respect to a prescribed smooth vector field. We construct both new Eulerian and semi-Lagrangian approaches to the discretization of the Lie derivatives in the context of a Galerkin approximation based on discrete differential forms. Details of implementation are discussed as well as an application to the discretization of eddy current equations in moving media.

Alexei Bespalov, Norbert Heuer, Ralf Hiptmair

We consider the variational formulation of the electric field integral equation (EFIE) on bounded polyhedral open or closed surfaces. We employ a conforming Galerkin discretization based on div-conforming Raviart-Thomas boundary elements (BEM) of locally variable polynomial degree on shape-regular surface meshes. We establish asymptotic quasi-optimality of Galerkin solutions on sufficiently fine meshes or for sufficiently high polynomial degree.