Sub-optimal convergence of discontinuous Galerkin methods with central fluxes for linear hyperbolic equations with even degree polynomial approximations

Abstract: In this paper, we theoretically and numerically verify that the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods with central fluxes for linear hyperbolic equations on non-uniform meshes have sub-optimal convergence properties when measured in the $L^2$-norm for even degree polynomial approximations. On uniform meshes, the optimal error estimates are provided for arbitrary number of cells in one and multi-dimensions, improving previous results. The theoretical findings are found to be sharp and consistent with numerical results.