Hybrid cross approximation of integral operators (Q2574946)

The efficient treatment of dense matrices arising, e.g., from the finite element discretisation of integral operators requires special compression techniques to avoid the quadratic cost for the assembly and storage. In this article the author uses the \(H\)-matrix representation that approximates the dense stiffness matrix in admissible blocks by low-rank matrices. A new hybrid method that combines the adaptive cross approximation algorithm with the interpolation-based separation of the kernel function is introduced. This makes able to rigorously prove convergence, both for single layer and double layer potentials of asymptotically smooth kernels as well as Nyström, collocation or Galerkin boundary element formulations. In the last section some numerical examples that underline the theoretical results are discussed.