Stabilized Finite Element Approximation of the Mean Curvature Vector on Closed Surfaces

Abstract: We develop a stabilized discrete Laplace-Beltrami operator that is used to compute an approximate mean curvature vector which enjoys convergence of order one in L2. The stabilization is of gradient jump type and we consider both standard meshed surfaces and so called cut surfaces that are level sets of piecewise linear distance functions. We prove a priori error estimates and verify the theoretical results numerically.