Triangular finite elements of HCT type and class \(C^ \rho\) (Q1895903)

Let \(\tau\) be some triangulation of a bounded polygonal domain \(\Omega \subset\mathbb{R}^2\). Let \(\tau_3\) be the Hsieh-Clough-Tocher (HCT) subtriangulation of \(\tau\) obtained by joining an interior point of each triangle to its vertices. For a smooth function \(u\), the authors construct a piecewise polynomial function \(v \in C^\rho (\Omega)\) of degree \(n = 3\rho\) for \(\rho\) odd and \(n = 3\rho + 1\) for \(\rho\) even, on the subtriangulation \(\tau_3\); the function \(v\) interpolates the derivatives of \(u\) up to order \(\rho\) at the vertices of \(\tau\).