A priori error analyses of a stabilized discontinuous Galerkin method (Q597261)

A major drawback of discontinuous Galerkin methods (DGM) is that one can observe many advantageous properties numerically but a consistent theory, including an appropriate function space setting, to prove existence, uniqueness and stability of the solution, is lacking. This paper introduces an extension of the DGM by \textit{J. T. Oden, I. Babuska} and \textit{C. E. Baumann} [J. Comput. Phys. 146, No.~2, 491-519 (1998; Zbl 0926.65109)] that includes an extra stabilization term on the inter-element jumps of the fluxes, which satisfies a local conservation property. The paper establishes the existence of unique stable solutions, in a new function space setting, to the associated variational boundary value problem. A priori estimates are given for rates of convergence and 1D and 2D numerical experiments are presented to test these rates.