Robust DPG Fortin operators

Abstract: At the fully discrete setting, stability of the discontinuous Petrov--Galerkin (DPG) method with optimal test functions requires local test spaces that ensure the existence of Fortin operators. We construct such operators for $H^1$ and $\boldsymbol{H}(\mathrm{div})$ on simplices in any space dimension and arbitrary polynomial degree. The resulting test spaces are smaller than previously analyzed cases. For parameter-dependent norms, we achieve uniform boundedness by the inclusion of exponential layers. As an example, we consider a canonical DPG setting for reaction-dominated diffusion. Our test spaces guarantee uniform stability and quasi-optimal convergence of the scheme. We present numerical experiments that illustrate the loss of stability and error control by the residual for small diffusion coefficient when using standard polynomial test spaces, whereas we observe uniform stability and error control with our construction.