BPX preconditioner for hypersingular integral equations (Q1272575)

The BPX preconditioner [cf. \textit{J. H. Bramble, J. E. Pasciak} and \textit{J. Xu}, Math. Comput. 55, No. 191, 1-22 (1990; Zbl 0703.65076)] for the Galerkin approximation of hypersingular integral equations is presented. The condition number of the preconditioned matrix is shown to behave as \(O(h^{-\varepsilon})\) where \(\varepsilon\) is small and depends on the singularity. When the curve is smooth \(\varepsilon\) is reduced to zero. The implementation is based on the preconditioned conjugate gradient method using the BPX preconditioner. A comparison between BPX preconditioner and hierarchical basis preconditioner is presented.