New Mixed Elements for Maxwell Equations

Abstract

New inf-sup stable mixed elements are proposed and analyzed for solving the Maxwell equations in terms of electric field and Lagrange multiplier. Nodal-continuous Lagrange elements of any order on simplexes in two- and three-dimensional spaces can be used for the electric field. The multiplier is compatibly approximated always by the discontinuous piecewise constant elements. A general theory of stability and error estimates is developed; when applied to the eigenvalue problem, we show that the proposed mixed elements provide spectral-correct, spurious-free approximations. Essentially optimal error bounds (only up to an arbitrarily small constant) are obtained for eigenvalues and for both singular and smooth solutions. Numerical experiments are performed to illustrate the theoretical results.