Preconditioning nonconforming finite element methods for treating Dirichlet boundary conditions. I (Q1204156)

This work deals with the \(L^ 2\) condition numbers and the distribution of the \(L^ 2\) singular values of the preconditioned operators \(\{B_ h^{-1}A_ h\}_{0<h<1}\), where \(A_ h\) and \(B_ h\) are finite element discretizations of second order elliptic operators, \(A\) and \(B\) respectively. For conforming finite elements, it was shown in the work of \textit{C. I. Goldstein, T. A. Manteuffel} and \textit{S. V. Parter} [Preconditioning and boundary conditions without \(H^ 2\) estimates: \(L_ 2\) condition numbers and the distribution of the singular values; SIAM J. Numer. Anal. (to appear)] that if the leading part of \(B\) is a scalar multiple \((1/\theta)\) of the leading part of \(A\), then the singular values of \(B^{-1}_ hA_ h\) ``cluster'' and ``fill-in'' the interval \([\theta_{\text{min}},\theta_{\text{max}}]\), where \(0<\theta_{\text{min}}\leq \theta_{\text{max}}\) are the minimum and maximum of the factor \(\theta\). As a generalization of these results, the current work includes nonconforming finite element methods which deal with Dirichlet boundary conditions. It is shown that, in this more general setting, the \(L^ 2\) condition numbers of \(\{B_ h^{-1}A_ h\}\) are uniformly bounded. Moreover, the singular values also ``cluster'' and ``fill-in'' the same interval. In particular, if the leading part of \(B\) is the same as the leading part of \(A\), then the singular values cluster about the point \(\{1\}\). Two specific methods are given as applications of this theory. They are the penalty method of \textit{I. Babushka} [Math. Comput. 27, 221-228 (1973; Zbl 0299.65057)] and the method of ``nearly zero'' boundary conditions of \textit{J. Nitsche} [Sympos. Univ. Maryland, Baltimore, 1972, 603-627 (1972; Zbl 0271.65059)].