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Title: Hybrid Finite Element--Spectral Method for the Fractional Laplacian: Approximation Theory and Efficient Solver

Journal Article · · SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1137/17M1144696· OSTI ID:1465192
 [1];  [2]
  1. Brown Univ., Providence, RI (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. Brown Univ., Providence, RI (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Here, a numerical scheme is presented for approximating fractional order Poisson problems in two and three dimensions. The scheme is based on reformulating the original problem posed over $$\Omega$$ on the extruded domain $$\mathcal{C}=\Omega\times[0,\infty)$$ following. The resulting degenerate elliptic integer order PDE is then approximated using a hybrid FEM-spectral scheme. Finite elements are used in the direction parallel to the problem domain $$\Omega$$, and an appropriate spectral method is used in the extruded direction. The spectral part of the scheme requires that we approximate the true eigenvalues of the integer order Laplacian over $$\Omega$$. We derive an a priori error estimate which takes account of the error arising from using an approximation in place of the true eigenvalues. We further present a strategy for choosing approximations of the eigenvalues based on Weyl's law and finite element discretizations of the eigenvalue problem. The system of linear algebraic equations arising from the hybrid FEM-spectral scheme is decomposed into blocks which can be solved effectively using standard iterative solvers such as multigrid and conjugate gradient. Numerical examples in two and three dimensions suggest that the approach is quasi-optimal in terms of complexity.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
ARO/MURI; USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1465192
Report Number(s):
SAND-2018-5601J; 663488
Journal Information:
SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, Vol. 40, Issue 4; ISSN 1064-8275
Publisher:
SIAMCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 25 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (12)

Aspects of an adaptive finite element method for the fractional Laplacian: A priori and a posteriori error estimates, efficient implementation and multigrid solver journal December 2017
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Numerical approximation of fractional powers of elliptic operators journal March 2015
An Extension Problem Related to the Fractional Laplacian journal August 2007
Regularity of spectral fractional Dirichlet and Neumann problems: Regularity of spectral problems journal October 2015
Second term of the spectral asymptotic expansion of the Laplace - Beltrami operator on manifolds with boundary journal January 1980
Toward the Optimal Preconditioned Eigensolver: Locally Optimal Block Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient Method journal January 2001
On the Schr�dinger equation and the eigenvalue problem journal September 1983
A PDE Approach to Fractional Diffusion in General Domains: A Priori Error Analysis journal August 2014
Finite element interpolation of nonsmooth functions satisfying boundary conditions journal May 1990
On the spectrum of two different fractional operators journal July 2014
Extension Problem and Harnack's Inequality for Some Fractional Operators journal October 2010

Cited By (2)

Dispersion analysis of the gradient weighted finite element method for acoustic problems in one, two, and three dimensions journal July 2019
An Efficient and Accurate Numerical Method for the Spectral Fractional Laplacian Equation journal January 2020

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