Generalizing Yee's method: Scalable geometric higher-order FEEC algorithms for Maxwell's equations on an unstructured mesh

Abstract: The Yee algorithm for electromagnetic simulations is widely known to have many advantages, including the following crucial two: (i) Its calculations are local and therefore efficiently parallelizable--enabling simulations that capitalize on the speed and scalability of high-performance computing architecture. (ii) Yee's method faithfully preserves the symplectic geometry of Maxwell's equations, improving its accuracy in long-time numerical simulations. Whereas previous geometric generalizations of Yee's method have sacrificed its scalability, in this article the Yee algorithm is generalized to higher order and unstructured meshes in a manner that fully preserves both its scalability and geometric naturalness. This generalization is achieved by prioritizing the locality of the algorithm, reflecting the physical locality of Maxwell's equations. Specifically, we demonstrate that Yee's method is but a special case of a larger family of symplectic, finite element exterior calculus (FEEC) methods that use scalable, local approximations of mass matrices. We discuss the numerical advantages of this family of methods, which we call scalable FEEC (SFEEC) methods.