The harmonic virtual element method: stabilization and exponential convergence for the Laplace problem on polygonal domains

AbstractWe introduce the harmonic virtual element method (VEM) (harmonic VEM), a modification of the VEM (Beirão da Veiga et al. (2013) Basic principles of virtual element methods. Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci., 23, 199–214.) for the approximation of the two-dimensional Laplace equation using polygonal meshes. The main difference between the harmonic VEM and the VEM is that in the former method only boundary degrees of freedom are employed. Such degrees of freedom suffice for the construction of a proper energy projector on (piecewise harmonic) polynomial spaces. The harmonic VEM can also be regarded as an ‘$H^1$-conformisation’ of the Trefftz discontinuous Galerkin-finite element method (TDG-FEM) (Hiptmair et al. (2014) Approximation by harmonic polynomials in starshaped domains and exponential convergence of Trefftz hp-DGFEM. ESAIM Math. Model. Numer. Anal., 48, 727–752.). We address the stabilization of the proposed method and develop an hp version of harmonic VEM for the Laplace equation on polygonal domains. As in TDG-FEM, the asymptotic convergence rate of harmonic VEM is exponential and reaches order $\mathscr{O}(\exp (-b\sqrt [2]{N}))$, where $N$ is the number of degrees of freedom. This result overperforms its counterparts in the framework of hp FEM (Schwab, C. (1998)p- and hp-Finite Element Methods: Theory and Applications in Solid and Fluid Mechanics. Clarendon Press Oxford.) and hp VEM (Beirão da Veiga et al. (2018) Exponential convergence of the hp virtual element method with corner singularity. Numer. Math., 138, 581–613.), where the asymptotic rate of convergence is of order $\mathscr{O}(\exp(-b\sqrt [3]{N}))$.