Structure-preserving Discretization of the Hessian Complex based on Spline Spaces

Abstract: We want to propose a new discretization ansatz for the second order Hessian complex exploiting benefits of isogeometric analysis, namely the possibility of high-order convergence and smoothness of test functions. Although our approach is firstly only valid in domains that are obtained by affine linear transformations of a unit cube, we see in the approach a relatively simple way to obtain inf-sup stable and arbitrary fast convergent methods for the underlying Hodge-Laplacians. Background for this is the theory of Finite Element Exterior Calculus (FEEC) which guides us to structure-preserving discrete sub-complexes.