Mixed finite element methods for nonlinear elliptic problems: The \(h-p\) version (Q1375446)

The authors consider nonlinear elliptic Dirichlet problems in mixed weak form. For the \({h-p}\) version of the mixed finite element method, convergence and stability are proved for the polynomial spaces introduced by \textit{J. C. Nedelec} [Numer. Math. 50, 57-81 (1986; Zbl 0625.65107)] and \textit{P. A. Raviart} and \textit{J. M. Thomas} [Lect. Notes Math. 606, 292-315 (1977; Zbl 0362.65089)] on a quasi-uniform decomposition of the domain into rectangles. In doing so, they also show solvability and unicity of the discrete problems for sufficiently small \(h\) and sufficiently large \(p\), if the solution is better than \(H^2\). Further, Newton's method is shown to converge quadratically on these discrete problems if the initial approximation is good enough. In applying their techniques to minimal surface problems, the authors switch to Brezzi-Douglas-Marini spaces (which need asymptotically -- for large \(p\) -- only half of the local number of degrees of freedom of the Nedelec-Raviart-Thomas spaces [cf. \textit{F. Brezzi}, \textit{J. Douglas} and \textit{L. D. Marini}, Numer. Math. 47, 217-235 (1985; Zbl 0599.65072)]) and present numerical results for a smooth problem.