Discrete Poincaré lemma (Q1772797)

The authors present a new approach playing an important role in the design and stability of numerical methods for partial differential equations. The authors obtain a discrete analogue of the Poincaré lemma on the exactness of differential forms in the context of a discrete exterior calculus based on simplicial cochains. A generalized cone operator that is valid for chains is developed with the essential homotopy properties to yield the lemma. This operator is a combinatorial operator that can be constructed for any simplicial complex that can be grown by a process of local augmentation. In particular, regular triangulations and tetrahedralizations of \(\mathbb{R}^2\) and \(\mathbb{R}^3\) are presented, for which the discrete Poincaré lemma is globally valid. The paper is very well composed. An introduction contains some basic definitions and results from simplicial algebraic topology with necessary references. A lot of pictures illustrate nontrivial reasoning and notions.