A superconvergent HDG method for the Maxwell equations

Abstract: We present and analyze a new hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) method for the steady state Maxwell equations. In order to make the problem well-posed, a condition of divergence is imposed on the electric field. Then a Lagrange multiplier $p$ is introduced, and the problem becomes the solution of a mixed curl-curl formulation of the Maxwell's problem. We use polynomials of degree $k+1$, $k$, $k$ to approximate $\bfu,\nabla \times \bfu$ and $p$ respectively. In contrast, we only use a non-trivial subspace of polynomials of degree $k+1$ to approximate the numerical tangential trace of the electric field and polynomials of degree $k+1$ to approximate the numerical trace of the Lagrange multiplier on the faces. On the simplicial meshes, a special choice of the stabilization parameters is applied, and the HDG system is shown to be well-posed. Moreover, we show that the convergence rates for $\boldsymbol{u}$ and $\nabla \times \boldsymbol{u}$ are independent of the Lagrange multiplier $p$. If we assume the dual operator of the Maxwell equation on the domain has adequate regularity, we show that the convergence rate for $\boldsymbol{u}$ is $O(h^{k+2})$. From the point of view of degrees of freedom of the globally coupled unknown: numerical trace, this HDG method achieves superconvergence for the electric field without postprocessing. Finally, we show that on general polyhedral elements, by a particular choice of the stabilization parameters again, the HDG system is also well-posed and the superconvergence of the HDG method is derived.