arXiv subjects

Benedikt Gräßle

Publications and source records attributed to Benedikt Gräßle.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Guaranteed inf-sup bounds and existence verification for semilinear elliptic problems via nonconforming finite elements

A Newton-Kantorovich-type argument enables the a posteriori existence verification of a locally unique regular root near a computed approximation. This framework allows for non-selfadjoint problems and extends the existing verification theory to nonconforming discretisations. A key ingredient is a guaranteed lower bound for the continuous inf-sup constant of the linearisation obtained with a novel approximation error bound for nonconforming schemes. All quantities are obtained from a postprocessing on the same discretisation within the adaptive loop. The theory is applied to a fourth-order formulation of the stationary 2D Navier-Stokes equations and illustrated by numerical experiments.

math.NA↗

arXiv2026

Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator for the Helmholtz problem with general wavenumbers on the $n$-sphere

This paper considers the Helmholtz problem in the exterior of a ball with Dirichlet boundary conditions and radiation conditions imposed at infinity. The differential Helmholtz operator depends on the complex wavenumber with non-negative real part and is formulated for general spatial dimensions. We prove wavenumber explicit continuity estimates of the corresponding Dirichlet-to-Neumann (DtN) operator which do not deteriorate as the complex wavenumber tends to zero. The exterior Helmholtz problem can be equivalently reformulated on a bounded domain with DtN boundary conditions on the artificial boundary of a ball. We derive wavenumber independent trace and Friedrichs-type inequalities for the solution space in wavenumber-indexed norms.

math.AP↗

arXiv2026

Optimal trace norms for Helmholtz problems

The natural $H^1(Ω)$ energy norm for Helmholtz problems is weighted with the wavenumber modulus $σ$ and induces weighted norms on the trace spaces $H^{\pm1/2}(Γ)$ by minimal extension to $Ω\subset\mathbb R^n$. This paper provides an explicit characterisation through weighted Sobolev-Slobodeckij norms and scaling estimates, highlighting the dependence on the geometry of the extension set $Ω\subset\mathbb R^n$ and the weight $σ$. The analysis identifies conditions under which these trace norms are intrinsic to the isolated boundary component $Γ\subset\partialΩ$ and establishes $σ$-explicit trace estimates in weighted spaces. In these norms, the Helmholtz potential and boundary integral operators satisfy improved coercivity and continuity estimates without additional low-frequency factors that deteriorate as $σ\to 0$; for $n\geq 3$, the same analysis also improves the corresponding bounds in the classical unweighted trace norms.

math.AP↗

arXiv2026

BEM for variable coefficient second-order problems

A novel boundary element method (BEM) removes the classical dependence on explicit fundamental solutions and extends quasi-optimal BEM discretisations to strongly elliptic operators with variable coefficients. The approach constructs a computable approximation of the boundary operator from a Galerkin discretisation of the underlying elliptic differential operator in a one-time preprocessing step, for instance by conforming finite elements. The resulting algebraic formulation retains the dimension reduction intrinsic to boundary integral methods and is compatible with standard data-sparse matrix compression techniques.

math.NA↗

arXiv2025

Stable skeleton integral equations for general coefficient Helmholtz transmission problems

A novel variational formulation of layer potentials and boundary integral operators generalizes their classical construction by Green's functions, which are not explicitly available for Helmholtz problems with variable coefficients. Wavenumber explicit estimates and properties like jump conditions follow directly from their variational definition and enable a non-local (``integral'') formulation of acoustic transmission problems (TP) with piecewise Lipschitz coefficients. We obtain the well-posedness of the integral equations directly from the stability of the underlying TP. The simultaneous analysis for general dimensions and complex wavenumbers (in this paper) imposes an artificial boundary on the external Helmholtz problem and employs recent insights into the associated Dirichlet-to-Neumann map.

math.AP↗

arXiv2024

Adaptive hybrid high-order method for guaranteed lower eigenvalue bounds

The higher-order guaranteed lower eigenvalue bounds of the Laplacian in the recent work by Carstensen, Ern, and Puttkammer [Numer. Math. 149, 2021] require a parameter $C_{\mathrm{st},1}$ that is found $\textit{not}$ robust as the polynomial degree $p$ increases. This is related to the $H^1$ stability bound of the $L^2$ projection onto polynomials of degree at most $p$ and its growth $C_{\rm st, 1}\propto (p+1)^{1/2}$ as $p \to \infty$. A similar estimate for the Galerkin projection holds with a $p$-robust constant $C_{\mathrm{st},2}$ and $C_{\mathrm{st},2} \le 2$ for right-isosceles triangles. This paper utilizes the new inequality with the constant $C_{\mathrm{st},2}$ to design a modified hybrid high-order (HHO) eigensolver that directly computes guaranteed lower eigenvalue bounds under the idealized hypothesis of exact solve of the generalized algebraic eigenvalue problem and a mild explicit condition on the maximal mesh-size in the simplicial mesh. A key advance is a $p$-robust parameter selection. The analysis of the new method with a different fine-tuned volume stabilization allows for a priori quasi-best approximation and improved $L^2$ error estimates as well as a stabilization-free reliable and efficient a posteriori error control. The associated adaptive mesh-refining algorithm performs superior in computer benchmarks with striking numerical evidence for optimal higher empirical convergence rates.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Rate-optimal higher-order adaptive conforming FEM for biharmonic eigenvalue problems on polygonal domains

The a posteriori error analysis of the classical Argyris finite element methods dates back to 1996, while the optimal convergence rates of associated adaptive finite element schemes are established only very recently in 2021. It took a long time to realise the necessity of an extension of the classical finite element spaces to make them hierarchical. This paper establishes the novel adaptive schemes for the biharmonic eigenvalue problems and provides a mathematical proof of optimal convergence rates towards a simple eigenvalue and numerical evidence thereof. This makes the suggested algorithm highly competitive and clearly justifies the higher computational and implementational costs compared to low-order nonconforming schemes. The numerical experiments provide overwhelming evidence that higher polynomial degrees pay off with higher convergence rates and underline that adaptive mesh-refining is mandatory. Five computational benchmarks display accurate reference eigenvalues up to 30 digits.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

The pressure-wired Stokes element: a mesh-robust version of the Scott-Vogelius element

The Scott-Vogelius finite element pair for the numerical discretization of the stationary Stokes equation in 2D is a popular element which is based on a continuous velocity approximation of polynomial order $k$ and a discontinuous pressure approximation of order $k-1$. It employs a "singular distance" (measured by some geometric mesh quantity $ Θ\left( \mathbf{z}\right) \geq 0$ for triangle vertices $\mathbf{z}$) and imposes a local side condition on the pressure space associated to vertices $\mathbf{z}$ with $Θ\left( \mathbf{z}\right) =0$. The method is inf-sup stable for any fixed regular triangulation and $k\geq 4$. However, the inf-sup constant deteriorates if the triangulation contains nearly singular vertices $0<Θ\left( \mathbf{z}\right) \ll 1$. In this paper, we introduce a very simple parameter-dependent modification of the Scott-Vogelius element such that the inf-sup constant is independent of nearly-singular vertices. We will show by analysis and also by numerical experiments that the effect on the divergence-free condition for the discrete velocity is negligibly small.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

Pressure-improved Scott-Vogelius type elements

The Scott-Vogelius element is a popular finite element for the discretization of the Stokes equations which enjoys inf-sup stability and gives divergence-free velocity approximation. However, it is well known that the convergence rates for the discrete pressure deteriorate in the presence of certain $critical$ $vertices$ in a triangulation of the domain. Modifications of the Scott-Vogelius element such as the recently introduced pressure-wired Stokes element also suffer from this effect. In this paper we introduce a simple modification strategy for these pressure spaces that preserves the inf-sup stability while the pressure converges at an optimal rate.

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

Unifying a posteriori error analysis of five piecewise quadratic discretisations for the biharmonic equation

An abstract property (H) is the key to a complete a priori error analysis in the (discrete) energy norm for several nonstandard finite element methods in the recent work [Lowest-order equivalent nonstandard finite element methods for biharmonic plates, Carstensen and Nataraj, M2AN, 2022]. This paper investigates the impact of (H) to the a posteriori error analysis and establishes known and novel explicit residual-based a posteriori error estimates. The abstract framework applies to Morley, two versions of discontinuous Galerkin, $C^0$ interior penalty, as well as weakly over-penalized symmetric interior penalty schemes for the biharmonic equation with a general source term in $H^{-2}(Ω)$.

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

A posteriori error control for fourth-order semilinear problems with quadratic nonlinearity

A general a posteriori error analysis applies to five lowest-order finite element methods for two fourth-order semi-linear problems with trilinear non-linearity and a general source. A quasi-optimal smoother extends the source term to the discrete trial space, and more importantly, modifies the trilinear term in the stream-function vorticity formulation of the incompressible 2D Navier-Stokes and the von Kármán equations. This enables the first efficient and reliable a posteriori error estimates for the 2D Navier-Stokes equations in the stream-function vorticity formulation for Morley, two discontinuous Galerkin, $C^0$ interior penalty, and WOPSIP discretizations with piecewise quadratic polynomials.

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

Stabilization-free HHO a posteriori error control

The known a posteriori error analysis of hybrid high-order methods (HHO) treats the stabilization contribution as part of the error and as part of the error estimator for an efficient and reliable error control. This paper circumvents the stabilization contribution on simplicial meshes and arrives at a stabilization-free error analysis with an explicit residual-based a posteriori error estimator for adaptive mesh-refining as well as an equilibrium-based guaranteed upper error bound (GUB). Numerical evidence in a Poisson model problem supports that the GUB leads to realistic upper bounds for the displacement error in the piecewise energy norm. The adaptive mesh-refining algorithm associated to the explicit residual-based a posteriori error estimator recovers the optimal convergence rates in computational benchmarks.

math.NA↗

arXiv2022

Optimal multilevel adaptive FEM for the Argyris element

The main drawback for the application of the conforming Argyris FEM is the labourious implementation on the one hand and the low convergence rates on the other. If no appropriate adaptive meshes are utilised, only the convergence rate caused by corner singularities [Blum and Rannacher, 1980], far below the approximation order for smooth functions, can be achieved. The fine approximation with the Argyris FEM produces high-dimensional linear systems and for a long time an optimal preconditioned scheme was not available for unstructured grids. This paper presents numerical benchmarks to confirm that the adaptive multilevel solver for the hierarchical Argyris FEM from [Carstensen and Hu, 2021] is in fact highly efficient and of linear time complexity. Moreover, the very first display of optimal convergence rates in practically relevant benchmarks with corner singularities and general boundary conditions leads to the rehabilitation of the Argyris finite element from the computational perspective.

math.NA↗