Combinatorial approximation to the divergence of one-forms on surfaces (Q1196314)

The de Rham mapping \(R\) associates a cochain with each differential form through integration on simplices. The right inverse Whitney mapping \(W\) is defined by \[ W[p_ 0,\dots,p_ q]=q!\sum(-1)^ j\mu_{p_ j}d\mu_{p_ 0}\land\cdots\land{\widehat{d\mu}}_{p_ j}\land\cdots\land d\mu_{p_ q} \] on a \(q\)-simplex \([p_ 0,\dots,p_ q]\); here \(\mu_ p\) is the barycentric coordinate to a vertex \(p\) of a triangulation. Now, the combinatorial coboundary \(d_ \tau\) to a triangulation \(\tau\) is defined by \(d_ \tau[p_ 0,\dots,p_ q]=\sum[p,p_ 0,\dots,p_ q]\) where the sum is over all \((q+1)\)- simplices of \(\tau\). At last, if the underlying manifold is Riemannian, we have the inner product of cochains \((c_ 1,c_ 2)=\int_ M\langle Wc_ 1,Wc_ 2\rangle dV\). Let \(d^*_ \tau\) be the \(\ell_ 2\)-dual to \(d_ \tau\). Theorem: If \(\tau=\tau_ n\) is the \(n\)-th standard subdivision of a triangulation \(\tau\), then \(W_ \tau d^*_ \tau R_ \tau\) uniformly converges to the adjoint \(d^*\) of the exterior differential (i.e., to the codifferential) as \(n\to\infty\). (The result disproves a counterexample by Dodziuk and Patodi).