Finite element and box-method discretizations for fractional elliptic problems with quadrature and mass lumping
This work provides a theoretical foundation and error analysis for practical numerical schemes for fractional elliptic problems, benefiting researchers in computational mathematics.
The paper develops a unified conforming piecewise linear framework for discretizing fractional elliptic problems, covering both finite element and box-method discretizations. It establishes error estimates and demonstrates the mass-lumped choice yields the intrinsic fractional box discretization, supported by numerical experiments.
We analyze numerical approximation of the fractional elliptic problem $L^βu=f$, ${β>0}$, where $L$ is a second-order self-adjoint elliptic operator with homogeneous Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions. The paper develops a unified conforming piecewise linear framework that covers both the standard finite element discretization and the box-method discretization of fractional powers. The key point is that the discrete fractional operator is defined with respect to an admissible inner product on the trial space. This includes, in particular, the standard $L^{2}$ inner product and the quadrature-based mass-lumped inner product, and we also identify a broader family of admissible inner products interpolating between these two realizations. Within this framework, we show that the mass-lumped choice yields the intrinsic fractional box discretization, namely the one obtained by taking fractional powers of the nonfractional box solution operator. For both the finite element and box-method realizations, we establish error estimates under natural consistency assumptions, making explicit the effect of load quadrature in the box case. The analysis applies directly to practical schemes and is supported by numerical experiments in one and two space dimensions.