J. Gopalakrishnan

C. Carstensen, L. Demkowicz, J. Gopalakrishnan

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.

J. Gopalakrishnan, F. Li, N. -C. Nguyen et al.

We consider the numerical approximation of the spectrum of a second-order elliptic eigenvalue problem by the hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) method. We show for problems with smooth eigenfunctions that the approximate eigenvalues and eigenfunctions converge at the rate 2k+1 and k+1, respectively. Here k is the degree of the polynomials used to approximate the solution, its flux, and the numerical traces. Our numerical studies show that a Rayleigh quotient-like formula applied to certain locally postprocessed approximations can yield eigenvalues that converge faster at the rate 2k + 2 for the HDG method as well as for the Brezzi-Douglas-Marini (BDM) method. We also derive and study a condensed nonlinear eigenproblem for the numerical traces obtained by eliminating all the other variables.

J. Gopalakrishnan, J. Schöberl, C. Wintersteiger

A spacetime domain can be progressively meshed by tent shaped objects. Numerical methods for solving hyperbolic systems using such tent meshes to advance in time have been proposed previously. Such schemes have the ability to advance in time by different amounts at different spatial locations. This paper explores a technique by which standard discretizations, including explicit time stepping, can be used within tent-shaped spacetime domains. The technique transforms the equations within a spacetime tent to a domain where space and time are separable. After detailing techniques based on this mapping, several examples including the acoustic wave equation and the Euler system are considered.

T. Bouma, J. Gopalakrishnan, A. Harb

This paper presents a duality theorem of the Aubin-Nitsche type for discontinuous Petrov Galerkin (DPG) methods. This explains the numerically observed higher convergence rates in weaker norms. Considering the specific example of the mild-weak (or primal) DPG method for the Laplace equation, two further results are obtained. First, the DPG method continues to be solvable even when the test space degree is reduced, provided it is odd. Second, a non-conforming method of analysis is developed to explain the numerically observed convergence rates for a test space of reduced degree.

J. Gopalakrishnan, S. Lanteri, N. Olivares et al.

Simulation of wave propagation through complex media relies on proper understanding of the properties of numerical methods when the wavenumber is real and complex. Numerical methods of the Hybrid Discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) type are considered for simulating waves that satisfy the Helmholtz and Maxwell equations. It is shown that these methods, when wrongly used, give rise to singular systems for complex wavenumbers. A sufficient condition on the HDG stabilization parameter for guaranteeing unique solvability of the numerical HDG system, both for Helmholtz and Maxwell systems, is obtained for complex wavenumbers. For real wavenumbers, results from a dispersion analysis are presented. An asymptotic expansion of the dispersion relation, as the number of mesh elements per wave increase, reveal that some choices of the stabilization parameter are better than others. To summarize the findings, there are values of the HDG stabilization parameter that will cause the HDG method to fail for complex wavenumbers. However, this failure is remedied if the real part of the stabilization parameter has the opposite sign of the imaginary part of the wavenumber. When the wavenumber is real, values of the stabilization parameter that asymptotically minimize the HDG wavenumber errors are found on the imaginary axis. Finally, a dispersion analysis of the mixed hybrid Raviart-Thomas method showed that its wavenumber errors are an order smaller than those of the HDG method.